On March 29, 2012, the fourth BRICS summit kicked off in New Delhi, India. Chinese President Hu Jintao, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma attended the summit.

Hu stressed in the summit that the world today is in an era of major development, major changes and major readjustments. The call of the times for peace, development and cooperation remains unchanged. A number of emerging markets and developing countries seize the opportunities to speed up development, promote cooperation through solidarity and seek development through cooperation and have gradually grown into the key forces for South-South and South-North cooperation. This will improve the overall productivity of human society and make the world economy more balanced, international relations more reasonable, global governance more effective and world peace more lasting.

At 10:00 local time, the summit kicked off. Singh chaired the summit. The theme of the summit is "Partnership for Stability, Security and Prosperity." Participating leaders exchanged in-depth views and reached wide consensus on the issues of global governance, sustainable development and cooperation of BRICS countries.

Hu delivered an important speech with the title of Strengthening Mutually Beneficial Cooperation for a Better Future. He pointed out that BRICS are a major member of the big family of emerging markets and developing countries and the positive forces for world peace and common development. BRICS cooperation now stands at a new starting point and we should seek ways to build on past achievements and take BRICS cooperation to a new level through pioneering efforts.

He put forward four proposals on strengthening the BRICS cooperation. First, be committed to common development and promote common prosperity. We need to manage our own affairs well, maintain economic growth and improve people's livelihood, which itself will be a tremendous contribution to world economic recovery and growth; second, be committed to consultation on an equal footing, deepen political trust, take into full account each other's major interests and concerns, build the model of mutual respect and consultation on an equal footing in the international community and be good friends and partners forever; third, be committed to pragmatic cooperation, cement the basis for cooperation, promote cooperation in all fields, consolidate the economic and social foundation of and people's will for cooperation, step up the fiscal and financial departments' consultations and cooperation and develop projects with brand effect; fourth, be committed to international cooperation, promote the development of the whole world, push for the reform of global economic governance, raise the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries, boost South-South cooperation and South-North dialogue, reinforce coordination and communications in the international economic, financial, trade and development fields, enhance coordination within such multilateral mechanisms as the G20 and the UN and show commitment to and support for multilateralism.

He stressed that China will firmly insist on scientific development, unswervingly follow the road of peaceful development, resolutely pursue a win-win strategy of opening up and is committed to promoting common development of the whole world in the course of realizing its own development. China is determined to support the BRICS cooperation and will always stand together with all developing countries.

Singh, Rousseff, Medvedev and Zuma addressed the summit respectively. They spoke highly of the major progress of BRICS cooperation and agreed that the world economic situation at present is not optimistic, the deep-seated causes of global financial crisis still exist and the European sovereign debt crisis continues spreading, bringing serious risks and challenges to the emerging markets and developing countries. The international community should make joint efforts to promote the early recovery and strong, sustainable and balanced growth of world economy. Developed countries should adopt responsible policies to stabilize their currencies and finance. BRICS countries will strive to promote their own economic growth, stimulate domestic demand, improve people's livelihood and expand mutual trade and investment.

They noted that the UN should function as the major channel to promote global governance and properly handle global challenges. The role of G20 should be played, the reform of global economic governance should continue, the share reform of the IMF should be carried out, the building of a fair, equitable, inclusive and orderly international financial system should be promoted, the BRICS cooperation on finance, energy and food security, environmental protection, climate change and the UN Millennium Development Goals should be deepened, the coordination and cooperation should be reinforced on major international and regional issues, the issue of Palestine and Israel, the Syrian, Iranian nuclear and other hotspot issues should be addressed through peaceful dialogue and efforts should be made to promote the democratization of international relations and safeguard world peace and stability.

Leaders support Brazil to host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June and India to host the Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October this year.

Before the summit started, Singh held a welcome ceremony for the leaders.

After the summit, leaders attended the signing ceremony of cooperation agreements and jointly met the press. Hu said that the development of BRICS countries is an integral part of the world development. The BRICS cooperation responds to the call of the times for peace, development and cooperation and will help promote the democratization of international relations. China is willing to strengthen partnership with other BRICS countries and jointly push for the building of a harmonious world with lasting peace and common prosperity.

The summit released the Delhi Declaration, planned for the next stage of cooperation and announced to hold the next summit in South Africa in 2013.