China today termed the fourth BRICS summit here as "successful",saying leaders of the five countries have reached a consensus on a number of key issues including the proposal for setting up of a development bank on the lines of global financial institutions. "In our view,the fourth BRICS leaders' meeting has achieved success. Thanks to the joint efforts of the leaders of the five countries," China's Assistant Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said. Referring to Chinese President Hu Jintao's address at the summit,Ma said BRICS (Brazil,Russia,India,China and South Africa) leaders in their "restricted discussions" have agreed on a number of key issues aimed at ensuring further economic growth. Noting that leaders of the five countries have agreed to enhance cooperation in 20 fields,he said increased mutual cooperation among BRICS member-countries will contribute significantly to global economic growth as well as to international cooperation. Welcoming the proposal for setting up of BRICS Development Bank,Ma said the goal and function of the lending institution would be to provide financial support to member- countries and other developing nations for infrastructure projects. Ma said setting up of the bank has been envisaged to compliment the existing financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. Terming the discussions among the leaders as very "fruitful",Ma said they would have liked to prolong their "restricted deliberations" before the plenary session as a lot of key issues were on the table. He said officials of the member-countries will hold periodic discussions on important issues to arrive at a consensus. Asked whether BRICS would play a political role at the United Nation,Director General of China's department of International Organisation Chen Xu said the leaders deliberated on number of "political and security issues" including the situation in Syria and Iran. He said the proportion of "political and security" issues figuring in the Delhi Declaration is much bigger compared to its proportion in the declaration at the previous Summit held in Sanya,China,last year. "We discussed a lot of issues relating to financial cooperation. This does not mean BRICS confined itself to trade and economic cooperation only. With evolving time,BRICS cooperation would expand to other areas," Chen said referring to BRICS position on issues relating to Syria and Iran in the Delhi Declaration.
