He said development should not be a privilege reserved for a few but a right for all countries, and he supported the inclusion of more nations in Brics.

“I am glad to see growing enthusiasm of developing countries about participating in Brics cooperation. And quite a number of them have applied to join … we need to accelerate the Brics expansion process to bring more countries into the Brics family,” Xi said.

He said expansion would help countries to “pool our strengths and wisdom to make global governance more just and equitable”. He said international rules should not be dictated by those with the strongest muscles or loudest voices.

Xi also proposed that a China-Brics science hub be set up to support innovation as well as cooperation on global remote-sensing data to support agriculture, conservation and disaster preparedness in various countries.

And he said China would work with other Brics nations to develop artificial intelligence frameworks and standards.

Xi was the only leader absent from the Brics business forum on Tuesday, with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reading a speech in his place that had a hardline message apparently aimed at the US.

Asked why Xi had not attended the forum, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin sidestepped the question, telling reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that Xi’s speech had been delivered.

In the speech read by Wang Wentao on Tuesday, Xi said: “Some country, obsessed with maintaining its hegemony, has gone out of its way to cripple the emerging and developing countries.

“Whoever is developing fast becomes its target of containment; whoever is catching up becomes its target of obstruction. But this is futile, as I have said more than once that blowing out others’ lamps will not bring light to oneself.”

Speaking about expanding the bloc on Wednesday, South African leader Ramaphosa said: “We stand on the cusp of expanding the Brics family because it is through this that we will have a much stronger Brics in these turbulent times that we live in.”

Other Brics leaders – including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who defended the war in Ukraine in his speech delivered by video – also gave their support to the move.

“India supports expansion of Brics in line with consensus,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, helping to clear doubt over New Delhi’s stance on allowing more countries in.

The move was among issues discussed at a leaders’ retreat at Summer Place in Hyde Park on Tuesday evening.

Dozens of countries in the Global South are looking to join Brics, which they see as a grouping that could challenge a world order dominated by the United States and its Western allies. More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining the bloc, with 23 having formally asked to be admitted, according to South African officials.

The Brics countries also want to reduce the dominance of the US dollar in the international financial markets, with some leaders suggesting domestic currencies be used for payments before the launch of a proposed Brics currency.

In 2015, Brics established the New Development Bank, which has so far approved more than 90 projects worth US$32 billion.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended the idea of a common trading currency among the Brics countries, saying the intention was not to reject the US dollar but to facilitate trade between emerging economies in their national currencies.

“I have advocated the idea of greater financial integration, where we can have a new reference unit, which will not replace our national currencies,” Lula da Silva said on Tuesday.

He added that Brics was not meant to challenge the US, the Group of Seven or the Group of 20 but to “organise” countries in the Global South into growing their trade and cooperation.