BEIJING: While appreciating the comments of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday that though the initiative originated in China, but the opportunities and achievements of the project still belong to the entire world.
“We have always said that the initiative has originated in China but the ownership of the project belongs to the world,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said during her regular briefing here.
She said that the Chinese side would cement the overall global economic recovery by expanding the physical and cultural environment of interconnection in terms of global demand.
Prime Minister Abbasi had said during a media interview in Davos that the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative proposed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping would help enhance the level of global connectivity. It merits mention here that Pakistan was an important part of the initiative and had already started reaping the benefits associated with the project by improving Pakistan’s economic development.
The spokesperson said that China had made it clear many times that the main objective of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative was to strengthen development cooperation between countries by strengthening international cooperation and focusing on infrastructure interconnection through mutual development.
In the last five years, the initiative had proceeded smoothly and also achieved fruitful results, she said, adding, “It has provided a large number of employment opportunities for the countries concerned, improved the development environment for participating countries and the space and potential for regional cooperation.”
Chunying further said that China was ready to work with all the stakeholders to continue promoting the initiative in line with the principle of ensuring the common development and prosperity of all countries in the world.
With regard to the differences between China and India, she said that China was ready to maintain communication and dialogue with the Indian side. “It will also actively seek solutions that are acceptable to both sides so that existing differences would not affect the overall situation of the relations between the two countries. This is in the best interests of both the countries,” she added.
Replying to yet another question, she explained that divergence between any two countries required that both parties showed sincerity and flexibility to promote mutual trust through dialogues conducted in the spirit of equality. “We have said many times that the CPEC is purely an economic cooperation project that does not involve the issue of territorial disputes. I hope India would treat this issue objectively,” she added.
To a question about China-India border dispute, the Chinese spokesperson said that China had said many times that the Sino-Indian border had been demarcated by history and that the Donglang region belonged to China and had always been under the effective jurisdiction of China.
She also said that China had made it clear that it would continue to exercise its sovereignty rights in such a porous area in accordance with the stipulations of historical conventions to safeguard its own territorial sovereignty. She further said that China and India should regard each other as partners in regional development rather than threats.
On the meeting of the Sino-Indian border defence forces, Chunying said that the Chinese side believed that strengthening communication between border guards would help to enhance mutual understanding and mutual trust between both the countries which would ensure a conducive environment for joint border manning activities.
China should change its behaviour towards India. India is country of mentally sick people who do not understand the language of peace
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