China welcomes Venezuela’s intention to join BRICS

China welcomed Venezuela’s intention to join BRICS, the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and said Beijing supports Caracas to achieve this goal.

In a joint statement issued Thursday following a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Beijing on Wednesday, Maduro reiterated their interest in joining BRICS during his meeting with XI.

"As a reliable energy supplier and the world’s largest oil and fourth largest natural gas reserve country, Venezuela can make important contributions to the energy agenda of this mechanism. China welcomes Venezuela’s positive intention to join BRICS and supports Venezuela’s efforts to achieve this goal," it said.

Last month, the emerging economies bloc announced that six countries including Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will join BRICS as full members next year.

In the 30-point joint statement, the two countries also announced to upgrade China-Venezuela relations to an all-weather strategic partnership and further give full play to the role of heads of state diplomacy.

The two sides also supported Latin America and the Caribbean as a nuclear-free zone and said they opposed Japan's discharge of treated wastewater into the sea.

While opposing sanctions against Venezuela, Beijing said they “seriously violate the basic principles of international law such as national sovereign equality and non-interference in internal affairs, and seriously damage the Venezuelan people's rights to survival, development and peace.”

The two sides agreed to encourage and support all efforts for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis and said dialogue and negotiation are the only feasible way to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.

"Venezuela highly appreciates and firmly supports China’s relevant proposals. Both sides called on more countries to play a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis."

Maduro concluded his week-long visit to China on Thursday.