Special reports: President Hu attends SCO, BRIC meetings, visits 3 nations 

Chinese President Hu Jintao (2nd R) poses for a group photo together with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (1st L), Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (2nd L), and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the first formal meeting of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) leaders in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16, 2009. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Photo Gallery>>>

    YEKATERINBURG, Russia, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao called for closer cooperation among BRIC countries and presented a proposal for dealing with the ongoing global financial crisis when he addressed the first BRIC summit here Tuesday.

    "We should seize the historic opportunity, strengthen unity and cooperation, and jointly safeguard the overall interests of developing countries, " Hu said, offering the following proposal for furthering cooperation among the BRIC countries, which groups Brazil, Russia, India and China.

    Firstly, to strengthen political mutual trust. He said the four are emerging countries with an impact on global affairs, and are the important forces to keep regional and international peace and stability.

    "We should make full use of current mechanisms and deepen political mutual trust through dialogue and communication, and serve as an example of mutual respect and equal coordination in the international community," Hu said.

    Secondly, to deepen economic cooperation. He noted that the four countries have advantages in resources, markets, labor force and technology, and are highly complementary to each other.

The first summit meeting of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) leaders is held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16, 2009. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) Photo Gallery>>>

    Hu called on the four countries to intensify economic cooperation, enrich its contents, broaden it to wider fields, create new mode for cooperation to achieve better results.

    Besides economic and trade cooperation, the four countries can also form partnership in science and technology when dealing with climate change, carry out joint research in high-tech fields such as new energy, and jointly create new economic growth engines, said Hu.

    Thirdly, to promote cultural cooperation. All the four countries have a centuries-old history and civilization and rich cultural heritages. There is a long standing friendship among the four peoples, said Hu.

    He urged the four countries to enhance exchange and cooperation in culture, education, health, tourism, sports and other fields, promote mutual understanding among the four peoples, encourage people of all sectors to become good friends and partners, thus laying a solid social groundwork for all-round cooperation.

    Fourthly, to encourage learning and drawing on useful experiences from each other. Hu said that each of the four countries has come up with a specific method of development, which is the common wealth of the human society.

    "We should respect each other's way of development of their own choice, exchange experience on development, draw on each other's way of development, and share their experience with other developing countries on a voluntary basis," said Hu.

    In addition, Hu called on the four nations to enhance dialogue, exchange and cooperation with each other on the principles of openness and transparency.

Chinese President Hu Jintao attends the first summit meeting of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) leaders in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16, 2009. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) Photo Gallery>>>

    Meanwhile, Hu presented a four-point proposal for dealing with the ongoing global financial crisis.

    Firstly, BRIC countries should commit themselves to bringing about an early recovery of the world economy, Hu said.

    "We should work hard to overcome the difficulties and try to take the lead in recovering from the global financial crisis," he said, adding "This is not only for our own need, but also contributes to world economic recovery."

    BRIC countries should solve the long-existing structural problems in their economic development and change their development pattern in an effort to improve the quality and level of their economic development , while striving to resume world economic growth.

    He also urged BRIC countries to continue to open their markets, make use of their mutually complementary strength and expand economic and trade cooperation.

    "We should also firmly oppose protectionism, jointly safeguard the normal and orderly flow of commodities, services and personnel worldwide, and help ensure that the Doha round of global trade talks would achieve a comprehensive and balanced outcome as soon as possible," he added.

    Secondly, BRIC countries should commit themselves to pushing forward the reform of international financial system, Hu said.

    To establish a new international financial order that is fair, equitable, inclusive and well-managed, and provide guarantee for the sustainable development of the global economy in terms of system and mechanism conforms with the trend of the historical development and is in the fundamental interest of all parties, he said.

    BRIC countries should improve the international financial supervision mechanism and ensure the effective participation of the developing countries in world financial supervision organizations such as the Financial Stability Board, Hu said.

    Thirdly, BRIC countries should commit themselves to implementing the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the president said.

    The international community should not overlook development issues and cut the input for development while dealing with global financial crisis, he said.

    Instead, it should pay close attention to the impact that the crisis has left on developing countries, especially the least developed ones, he added.

    The BRIC countries should call on all parties to continue to implement the MDGs and urge the developed economies to fulfill their commitment to assistance, he added.

    Fourthly, BRIC countries should commit themselves to ensuring the security of food, energy resource, and public health, he added.

    He said while tackling the ongoing global financial crisis, efforts should be made to properly handle some outstanding problems that hinder development, such as climate change, food, energy, resource and public health security. A long-term approach and overall plan should be adopted to take all factors into consideration as these issues bear on the wellbeing of all peoples in the world and their overall interests, he added.

    He also urged BRIC countries to increase investment in agriculture, develop advanced agricultural technique and curb market speculation. He also called for greater food assistance and closer agricultural and food cooperation.

    "We should also accelerate our efforts in developing clean and renewable energy, and establish advanced research and promotion systems in a bid to diversity our energy supply," Hu said.

    He urged the four countries to strengthen information exchanges and communication, share the experience on epidemics preventions and control, and work together to develop and share vaccines, and cooperate in pandemic control and prevention.