1st BRICS Think-Tank Forum on Pragmatic Cooperation

In Shanghai, May 25-26: a meeting to lay the ground for a new world economic order. Here is how the globalization might be seered in the right direction. We present here the program of the event:

Last year marks the 10th anniversary of BRICS cooperation since 2006 when the 1st meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China was held on the margins of the opening sessions of United Nations General Assembly. Ten years on, BRICS cooperation has grown in depth and substance with solid steps as we included our first new member South Africa, and successively transitioned from a platform focusing essentially on economical issues and discussion of general ideas and principles into a new mechanism of all-round coordination with equal emphasis on political and economic governance, as well as security cooperation and cultural exchange, dealing both strategic and practical matters.

As China will host the 9th Summit of BRICS Leaders in Xiamen in September 2017 and BRICS are marching to the next decade, especially when set against the backdrop of the hampered world economy recovery, the rising surge of “protectionism” and “antiglobalization”, and the world-wide occurrences of “black swan” events, we and our cooperation will embrace a new era accompanied by daunting challenges yet enormous opportunities.

BRICS countries are not just a community of converging interests, but more importantly, we take concerted actions and make progress together. Shanghai Community of BRICS Studies (consists of Fudan University, Shanghai Academy of Social Science and Shanghai Institute of International Studies) now would like to take this opportunity to host the 1st BRICS Think-Tank Forum on Pragmatic Cooperation with the theme of “Globalization in the Time of Transition: Shared Opportunities, Challenges and Responsibilities for BRICS”. As a warm-up for the upcoming Xiamen Summit, this forum will bring former government officials and influential academics and think-tankers from the five BRICS countries together to discuss and exchange ideas on approaches to tackle challenges, deepen pragmatic cooperation, carry globalization forward to a new stage of benign development. We look forward that BRICS will be a new driving force and bring in a new era of globalization.