BRICS declaration raises eyebrows in EU

The BRICS declaration at Sanya in China frowning the use of force by West in Libya surprised scholars from EU that the five-member bloc could come up with such a "long, impressive and ambitious" declaration injecting new impetus into international relations and governance.

They said the five countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - will face mounting tasks of coordination to put the plan into action.

"I'm quite surprised how long the declaration is and how wide (an area) it covers," said Duncan Freeman, a senior researcher at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies dais.

"It goes beyond my expectations," he told state-run China Daily at Brussels.

Leaders from five of the world's largest emerging economies met in South China's resort city of Sanya on Thursday and achieved a consensus covering a wide range of issues such as a stance on Libya, support for Japan and multilateral cooperation.

They also rolled out a 23-point action plan to implement previously launched programs, and start new projects and proposals.

"Now comes the hard part of translating an action plan from the stage of good intentions into real action," said David Fouquet, director of Europe-Asia Network in Brussels.

"The participants have signalled their intention of achieving that status. Now they must prove their capability," he said.

Federik Ponjaert, senior researcher with the Institute of European Studies of the University Liberty of Brussels, said the five countries have numerous differences economically but share the similarity of seeking global influence.

"So I am surprised that the Sanya Declaration has indicated that the five countries want to assert their political influence on the global stage," said Ponjaert.

"Previously, they focused on economic and financial issues."

However, Ponjaert said the declaration has identified the "common interests" of the five countries but lacks a "shared agenda of strategy".

Meanwhile, there is a lack of enough solutions to realize their common interests in such wide range of issues.

"This is the very first step for the five countries to sit together and they have been faced with challenges to find shared strategy and solutions," Ponjaert said.