By Staff, Agencies

President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos that France, which took over the G7 presidency in January, wants the group to build closer ties with BRICS to counter rising global “fragmentation.”

Speaking about the agenda for the group, Macron said Paris wants to restore effective cooperation within the G7 while also developing ties with the wider world. One of the objectives is “to build bridges and… cooperation with the emerging countries, BRICS and the G20,” he said.

Founded in 2006, BRICS is an intergovernmental group of 10 nations—including Brazil, China, India, and Russia—representing nearly half the world’s population and over a quarter of the global economy.

“Fragmentation of this world would not make sense,” Macron said, adding that it is time for “major powers” to demonstrate they are still capable of producing shared assessments of the global economy and “committing to concrete actions.”

Earlier this month, Macron told French ambassadors, “The G7 should not be an anti-China club or an anti-BRICS club.” On Tuesday, however, he criticized China for limited market access and flooding Europe with goods, urging the EU to “strengthen its trade defense instruments” amid rising trade tensions and Asian overcapacities.