By Staff Reporters

The BRICS membership doubled on January 1, from 5 to 10, after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Ethiopia joined the group of emerging-market nations.

For years, BRICS has witnessed concrete cooperation results in economic, political, scientific and cultural spheres, and continues to prosper in a spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation.

On the medical front, BRICS countries have established a research network for tuberculosis, which has greatly promoted communication among policymakers and scientists and contributed to the global drive of ending TB, according to China's National Health Commission.

In addition, BRICS members explored more medical cooperation opportunities through a series of international conferences. Neuroscientists from five BRICS countries gathered in 2023 at the Neuroscience Symposium in Shanghai, and exchanged the latest academic advances in the fields of brain function, brain mapping, sleep regulation, mental diseases, degenerative diseases, primate models, and new techniques for brain research.

As emerging markets and agricultural powers, BRICS countries are an important force in ensuring world food security. To promote the high-quality development of agriculture, the countries turned to science and technology.

In June 2023, the "Chinese + Agricultural Science and Education Development Center" jointly built by South China Agricultural University and Brazil's Federal University of Mato Grosso was officially inaugurated.

Taking the advantages of discipline construction and international resources, the center plays the role of a language bridge, and builds a platform for agricultural science and education cooperation.

On July 5, 2023, the China-Russia Soybean Joint Research Center was officially inaugurated. The center will promote the advantages of soybean science and technology and personnel resources of the two countries, creating an international soybean research platform of joint innovation and resource sharing.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in November 2023 said Ethiopia's membership in the BRICS mechanism is advantageous as the group promotes the South-South cooperation framework.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Prince Faisal bin Farhan was quoted by Reuters as saying the BRICS group was "a beneficial and important channel" to strengthen economic cooperation.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, China is fully confident in the BRICS' future, and BRICS expansion has shown positive prospects. He noted the BRICS cooperation mechanism has increased cohesiveness and influence, and become a positive and stable force for good in international affairs.

“We will work with BRICS partners to strive for new results in greater BRICS cooperation," Wang said on January 2.