Shen Yi, Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University. In 2005, he graduated with a PhD in law from the Department of International Politics at Fudan University and then stayed on as a faculty member. He currently serves as a Director of the Center for BRICS Studies and heads the International Research Institute of Global Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University.
In 2024, you mentioned that expansion of BRICS is inevitable. What are the key drivers behind the enlargement of the group, and why is BRICS economically attractive?
The BRICS countries share common values. They have more common understanding of how the world should be governed and how people in those countries with different cultural and historical backgrounds can share their differences and peaceful coexistence with each other. And BRICS, this very new and innovative mechanism and organisation, represents the best example for all these countries that are exploring these new ways.
The BRICS countries represent stability and certainty in today’s world. This is done for all developing countries, and emerging market countries and the Global South are very interested in joining BRICS. Then they will be able to cooperate and receive benefits, contributions and assistance from these BRICS member states so that they can also find their own solutions in today’s world and to ensure their economic development.
In your opinion, what have been the key achievements of BRICS countries in recent years that have laid the foundation for further cooperation?
I think in these years, BRICS achieved a lot, including the setting up of the New Development Bank so that they can provide financial assistance globally. Southern countries and the BRICS member states view our infrastructure buildings in a different way compared to the World Bank and IMF, which is more constructive and provides more concrete help to those countries which really needed these infrastructures. BRICS countries promote high-level education cooperation, the university league and the union of the universities.
The BRICS young generations can have a better understanding of each other, and so that they can jointly share their knowledge and resources.
And also, the BRICS countries launch the joint revolution partnerships of this newly emerging industry. And so that the BRICS countries can explore the potential ways to push forward the cooperation in the digital technology-related areas, infrastructure construction, industrial development, and so on.
During President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in May 2025, several important agreements were signed, emphasising the deepening of a strategic cooperation partnership between Russia and China. In your opinion, what are the key areas of this cooperation that will define the future of this relationship? And how might this relationship influence the broader strategic dynamics within BRICS?
I think that Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow this year is critical, not only to the Sino-Russian relationships and not only to the BRICS countries’ development, but it’s also very important to the world in general ways. In all the three agreements or the joint statements that China and Russia signed and published in Moscow, I think maybe there’s one joint statement that is extremely important.
That’s the Russia-China joint statement on ensuring the strategic stability in today’s world. I think it’s the first time that China and Russia declared their very clear understanding of their ideas on how to ensure the strategic stability, which mainly implies how to avoid the conflict among the nuclear powers.
And the second, China and Russia also got lots of detailed technical cooperation fields on how to do this. All these countries are very clear against deploying any offensive missile systems or bases alongside other nuclear countries, so that will raise a threat to their critical core interest of national security.
Also, China and Russia fund their joint fields to launch cooperations on AI-related areas so that those AWS governance rules should be properly developed, and all other WMD, including the chemical and biological weapons, should be, how to say, prohibited from being illegally used, and all countries should respect the international rules governing the proliferation of these dangerous weapons to the world.
You have mentioned before that the BRICS countries need to pay special attention to infrastructure development. Which specific infrastructure projects should be prioritised in this regard?
I think in today’s world, the development of artificial intelligence is listed as the first priority of all the member states of the BRICS group and all the countries of the Global South.
BRICS countries should find a roadmap, a blueprint, for how to push forward these AI-centred infrastructures in the general ways. That means a huge investment in infrastructure.
The BRICS countries could and should develop some joint ventures. For example, if possible, the BRICS member state should set up something like an excellent office or centres for these artificial AIs of the BRICS member states. Through this we can share our technologies.
What new initiatives within BRICS could enhance cooperation in the fields of technology and sustainable development?
The BRICS countries have strong potential to explore the new cooperations in technologies and industry. Russia has strong historical advantages in those industries, especially in advanced machine building and material production.
Nowadays, China has comparative advantages in the development of ICT infrastructure buildings and the latest development of AI LLM (Large Language Model).
Brazil is strong in advanced industries; their aeroplane production is at a fairly high level. India, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia have their comparative advantages in different fields.
I think it’s a proper time for the BRICS member states to find out a more detailed and concrete roadmap and blueprint for their future cooperation in the fields of technology.
How do you assess the prospects for collaboration among academia, the private sector, and governments within the BRICS framework to develop joint solutions in the field of the green economy?
Collaboration between the private and public sectors is a very practical method of establishing effective cooperation. Inside the BRICS countries, I think at the very beginning, in the early 2010s, people believed that the partnership between the private and the public sectors should be a practical model to ensure cooperation, including trade and investment.
But we need to do a lot of things to facilitate such kinds of trade and investment activities. In our center, the Center for BRICS Studies in Fudan University, we’re helping the BRICS member states to run information-sharing platforms.
In today’s geopolitical environment, the BRICS member states will have very strong inside trade and investment toward each other because they will find out the BRICS member state is the best option for trade and investment in certain programmes and projects.
What role do you see for the Center for BRICS Studies in strengthening academic and expert dialogue among the member countries?
Our Center is one of the first centers that focus on the BRICS studies. In our center, we conduct high-quality academic research on how to push forward the BRICS cooperation and how to understand the BRICS member states.
We provide high-quality policy recommendations and suggestion files on how to launch effective and practical BRICS corporations. And it’s based on our suggestions that the headquarters of the New Development Bank was decided to be located in Shanghai.
We also launched the initiation to set up the BRICS University League. Every year we host a summer school for the BRICS young generations and students from all BRICS member states in Shanghai.
In your opinion, how important is cultural and educational exchange in building trust between nations in a multipolar world?
I think that cultural and educational exchange to be the most important area that we should focus on, because we have very different cultural and historical backgrounds, and such cross-cultural cooperation, education, and exchange programmes help people to understand each other.
If we can build the relationship, the friendship, that is deep-rooted in the young generations of all the BRICS member states, then in the future, year by year, we will find out that relationship among BRICS countries are developing deeper and deeper.
More and more people will understand each other better. And by finding the fascinating and most interesting part of the history, economy, and culture of other countries in order to share information and activities, they will get better and better. This is one of the most important areas for the future development of the BRICS countries.
Which soft power initiative do you consider most effective in promoting mutual understanding among the BRICS nations?
I think that all the BRICS member states show their respect toward each other’s core interests and take a quite open and honest attitude toward each other’s culture. The BRICS member states are trying to become very benign and very eager to better understand each other.
All of these characteristics – I would like to use the term “characteristics” rather than “self-powers” to represent them – and thanks to these characteristics, it will be easier for the BRICS countries to overcome differences in culture and history and then begin more effective cooperation based on a better understanding of each other’s history and cultural heritage.
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