President Xi Jinping welcomed his counterparts from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa and delivered a speech during the BRICS leaders' informal meeting on Sunday morning ahead of the G20 summit.

"The rising of emerging economies and developing countries is the one of the deepest changes in modern international relations. The BRICS countries are not only leaders of the emerging economies, but also important members of G20," Xi said, hoping all the five nations would strengthen coordination and cooperation to support the development of those two important platforms.

Xi also expects the BRICS countries will work together to play a bigger role in the world stage and be more positive in international governance.

"I'm looking forward to the fruitful outcome of today's informal meeting. It will make great preparation for the G20 summit in the afternoon and also set foundations for the 8th BRICS summit to be held in Goa, India a month later," Xi said.

The informal meeting will give BRICS leaders a chance to discuss their major decisions and fine-tune them before announcing them at the 8th BRICS summit in mid-October in Goa in western India, according to Swaran Singh, professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.