Russia and China want to "strengthen" the economic cooperation of Brics

Johannesburg – Chinese presidents Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed on Thursday the need to "strengthen" cooperation among Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in a trade war climate with the United States.
  

" Geopolitical conflicts and the escalation of protectionism and unilateralism directly affect the development of emerging markets and developing markets ," Xi said on the second day of the summit Brics in Johannesburg.

" We must remain engaged in multilateralism ," he insisted. In this context, " it is necessary that the Brics strengthen their strategic partnership " to make " of the next decade another golden decade ".

million. Xi called the forum of the five emerging countries, launched in 2009, to " unlock the enormous potential of [leur] economic cooperation ".

Vladimir Putin followed him, believing that the Brics play " a unique role in the world economy ".

" They contribute 42% of world GDP and this share continues to grow ," he said.

" In 2017, the trade between the Brics has increased by 30% and we intend to develop even more this partnership ," said Putin, a Brics pin pinned to his suit.

These calls for cooperation come as US President Donald Trump has unleashed commercial hostilities against Beijing, Brussels and Moscow in recent months.

In particular, it imposed customs duties on steel and aluminum, mainly targeting China, and now threatens to punitively tax all Chinese imports.

To try to defuse the crisis, Mr. Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met in Washington on Wednesday.

The US President promised to revisit the issue of US tariffs on European steel and aluminum. Messrs. Trump and Juncker also announced a series of decisions in agriculture, industry and energy, the exact scope of which remains to be confirmed.