The foreign ministers of China, Russia, India and Brazil on Friday stressed multilateral cooperation and diplomacy in dealing with global affairs.

The four top diplomats, who met in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg, said in a joint statement after the meeting that their dialogues have bright prospect since the four countries share the same or similar views on the pressing issues of the world development.

Establishing a more democratic international system based on the rule of law and multilateralism is a call of the times, said the four foreign ministers -- Yang Jiechi of China, Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Pranab Mukherjee of India and Celso Amorim of Brazil.

They pledged to work with other countries to enhance international security and stability so as to ensure that all countries enjoy an equal opportunity for development.

The current world order should be based on the rule of law and the strengthening of multilateralism and the role of the United Nations, they said in the statement.

The foreign ministers expressed the hope that the international community should meet the common challenges in the field of international security through multilateral diplomacy, and they reiterated their support for resolving disputes in international relations through peaceful means.

Noting the close links between energy security, social-economic growth and environmental protection, they pledged to strengthen multilateral efforts to achieve an equilibrium between energy producing, transit and consuming countries.

The foreign ministers supported promoting dialogue on a global partnership in achieving the internationally agreed goals of development, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the statement said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2008)