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The opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is held in the National Convention Center in Beijing on May 14, 2017. [Photo by Xu Jingxing/chinadaily.com.cn] |
BEIJING - President Xi Jinping on Sunday said the Belt and Road Initiative is "a project of the century" that will benefit people across the world.
Xi made the remarks when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
Named after the historic Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by Xi in 2013 to chart out new territories for international cooperation. Below are some highlights of the President's remarks.
"Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit," Xi told an audience of more than 1,500 from across the globe.
"The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilization," he said.
President Xi Jinping said that the pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative is not meant to reinvent the wheel.
"Rather, it aims to complement the development strategies of countries involved by leveraging their comparative strengths," Xi said.
60b yuan assistance to developing countries participating in B&R
China will provide assistance worth 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) to developing countries and international organizations participating in the Belt and Road Initiative to launch more projects to improve people's well-being, said President Xi Jinping.
To build Belt and Road into road for peace
President Xi Jinping said the Belt and Road should be built into a road for peace, as the pursuit of the initiative requires a peaceful and stable environment.
"The ancient silk routes thrived in times of peace, but lost vigor in times of war. The pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative requires a peaceful and stable environment," said Xi.
"We should foster a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation; and we should forge partnerships of dialogue with no confrontation and of friendship rather than alliance," he said.
All countries should respect each other's sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity, each other's development paths and social systems, and each other's core interests and major concerns, Xi said.
China involved in major Belt and Road connectivity projects
China has engaged in the construction of several major projects to improve infrastructure connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping said.
China, in cooperation with relevant countries, has accelerated the building of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, China-Laos railway, Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and Hungary-Serbia railway, and upgraded Gwadar and Piraeus ports. A large number of connectivity projects are also in the pipeline, Xi said.
He noted that a multi-dimensional infrastructure network is taking shape, underpinned by economic corridors such as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor and the New Eurasian Continental Bridge.
The network features land-sea-air transportation routes and information expressway and is supported by major railway, port and pipeline projects, Xi said.
A total of 29 foreign heads of state and government leaders attended the forum, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Other delegates include officials, entrepreneurs, financiers and journalists from over 130 countries, and representatives of key international organizations, such as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde.
The United States sent a delegation led by Matt Pottinger, special assistant to the president and senior director for Asia at the National Security Council.
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The opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is held in the National Convention Center in Beijing on May 14, 2017. [Photo by Xu Jingxing/chinadaily.com.cn] |
By all means, the forum, which also features a round-table summit of global leaders on Monday, is one of the premium gatherings in today's world, and the most prestigious international assembly China has ever inaugurated.
At the center of its focus is Xi's grand plan to better combine the rapidly expanding Chinese economy with the development of Asia, Europe and Africa.
Now a catchphrase both domestically and abroad, the Belt and Road Initiative is essentially a new inclusive platform on which countries in Eurasia and beyond can strengthen economic and cultural cooperation to achieve common prosperity.
By linking countries and regions that account for about 60 percent of the world's population and 30 percent of global GDP, the initiative is a perfect example of China offering its own wisdom and solutions to global governance, said Wang Yiwei, a professor at the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China.
"It features inclusive and sustainable growth and takes into account development needs of different countries and regions for common prosperity," he said.