India and the four other members of the BRICS grouping on Wednesday pledged to rise above protectionism and safeguard the multilateral trade system to promote a strong, balanced and inclusive global growth.<br/><br/>A two-day meeting of the trade ministers from India, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa was held at Shanghai in China. Minister of State for Commerce and Trade, Nirmala Sitharaman, who headed a six-member delegation, took part in the talks.<br/><br/>A joint statement, released after the meeting, said, the member countries should jointly tackle the challenges of economic globalisation, promote open and quitable world economy. It said, the countries should uphold the common interests of the emerging markets and developing countries with a view to promoting strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.<br/><br/>The statement said, the countries are also members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and play a major part in global economic governance.The BRICS ministers agreed to firmly oppose protectionism and pledged to annul any protective measures, calling on other countries to follow suit.They also encouraged more countries to participate in the WTO, urging the institution to show more commitment to receiving the least developed countries.