BEIJING: While delivering a speech at the opening of the two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Sunday, the Belt and Road should be built into a road of peace, prosperity, opening up, innovation and connecting different civilizations.
“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 added.
He called for fostering the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and creating a security environment built and shared by all.
The president urged the Belt and Road to be built into a road of prosperity.
“In pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative, we should focus on the fundamental issue of development, release the growth potential of various countries and achieve economic integration and interconnected development and deliver benefits to all,” he stated further.
Stressing infrastructure connectivity, Xi called for promoting land, maritime, air and cyberspace connectivity, focusing on key passageways, cities and projects, and connecting networks of highways, railways and sea ports.
He called for collaboration to improve trans-regional logistics network and promote connectivity of policies, rules and standards so as to provide institutional safeguards for enhancing connectivity.
“We should build an open platform of cooperation and uphold and grow an open world economy,” Xi said.
“We should jointly create an environment that will facilitate opening up and development, establish a fair, equitable and transparent system of international trade and investment rules and boost the orderly flow of production factors, efficient resources allocation and full market integration,” he continued.
The Chinese President also called for establishing a multi-tiered mechanism for cultural and people-to-people exchanges, building more cooperation platforms and opening more cooperation channels.
The forum, the highest-level international meeting since Xi proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, is being attended by 29 foreign heads of state and government leaders as well as delegates from 130 countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary General António Guterres also addressed the opening session of the forum and extended their full support to the Chinese Belt and Road initiative for the common benefit of world nations.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif alongwith a high-level delegation including all the four provincial chief ministers is representing Pakistan in the forum.
