Despite newly elected Argentinian President Javier Milei announcing on Friday that his country would not become a member of BRICS for now, that regrettable decision will not diminish the bloc’s appeal, which is only set to increase with the strong message of inclusiveness that was sent on Monday with its expansion.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Ethiopia joined Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to start a new chapter for the group. The doubling of its membership is testament to the group’s strong global appeal as it turns 18 years old this year and also to the cohesiveness of developing countries despite their different sizes, development stages and political systems. Apart from the five new members, dozens of countries have signed up to join BRICS, including Kuwait, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Bolivia.

Over the past 17 years, BRICS has been a platform for the five BRICS countries to strengthen their cooperation, helping to foster the rise of the Global South. The Shanghai-based New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement exemplify the fruitful and pragmatic nature of the bloc’s cooperation.

Amid the increasingly complex international environment and lackluster global economic recovery, many developing countries are facing such woes as debt pressures, high inflation and sluggish growth. The five new members, as representatives of the Middle East and Africa, will help extend the bloc’s global reach and influence, giving it greater weight as a global economic stabilizer. The newly expanded BRICS can coordinate efforts to promote shared growth, safeguard multilateralism, and make greater contributions to realize more just and equitable global governance.

The world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, and the international order is undergoing major shifts, divisions and regrouping. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have not only disrupted the global supply chains but also brought huge risks to peace and development both regionally and globally.

Painting an even gloomier picture, some Western countries, entrenched in a Cold War mentality, have been sparing no effort to sow the seeds of division and confrontation so as to maintain the West’s hegemony. Under such a gloomy backdrop, the BRICS cooperation mechanism is being looked to as a means to serve the common aspirations of emerging economies and developing countries for a fairer share of the global pie, and to shore up the global trend toward multipolarity.

As a developing country, member of the Global South and founding member of BRICS, China is confident in the development of the cooperation mechanism. It is ready to deepen cooperation across the board in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation to jointly shape a brighter future for peoples of the BRICS members and the world at large.