HAVANA, July 22 -- Cuban elder statesman Fidel Castro has praised the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, and the results of its latest meeting in Brazil.

In an op-ed piece carried Tuesday by the official Prensa Latina news agency, Castro said the agreements reached at the just-concluded sixth BRICS summit would result in "the defense of an open, transparent, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system."

Leaders of the members of the BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, met last week in Brazil's Fortaleza, vowing to establish a new development bank and a contingent reserve arrangement, which were considered to be of profound significance to improving global governance and the international economic and financial order.

Castro, 87, in the piece titled "It's time to learn a little more about reality," particularly hailed the role of China and Russia in assisting the development of Latin American and Caribbean nations.

"The contribution of Russia and China to science, technology and economic development in South America and the Caribbean is decisive," he said.

Undoubtedly, Castro added, the recent Latin America tours of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could be considered "one of the great feats of human history."

"The great events of history are not forged in one day," wrote Castro, predicting that "huge and increasingly complex challenges lie on the horizon."

Castro retired from power in 2006 due to health problems, but has been serving in an advisory role as an elder statesman.