The Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) was successfully held in Beijing last week. At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, 40 national leaders and heads of international organizations including Prime Minister Imran Khan attended the forum. The event was also attended by more than 6,000 representatives from 150 countries and 92 international organizations. The participants exchanged in-depth views under the theme “Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping a Brighter Shared Future”, reached extensive consensus on promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with refined principles, reassured priorities and stronger mechanisms.
First, reviewing and summarizing the progress and significance of Belt and Road cooperation. Belt and Road cooperation has created opportunities for common prosperity. Since Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) was proposed over 5 years ago, and especially after the first BRF in 2017, related parties have made concerted efforts to expand policy communication, upgrade infrastructure connectivity, advance economic, trade and investment cooperation, enhance financial cooperation and facilitate people-to-people exchange. The “early harvests” of Belt and Road cooperation achieved so far have opened up greater space for national and global economic growth, provided a platform for enhancing international cooperation, and made a fresh contribution to building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Second, establishing the goal of high-quality development of Belt and Road cooperation. As President Xi Jinping pointed out, to achieve the high-quality development of Belt and Road cooperation, we should uphold the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We are committed to supporting open, clean and green development and have agreed to act on the principles of high standard, people-centered and sustainable development. These common views have been written into the joint communique of the Round Table Summit of BRF, which has become an international consensus and will lead the parties to refine the blueprint of Belt and Road cooperation. The concept articulated by President Xi Jinping of acting on the principles of high international standard, ensuring commercial and financial sustainability of the progress has been widely recognized by the international community. So far, no country has fallen into a debt crisis because of BRI. On the contrary, many countries have stepped out of the “trap of poverty” by participating in BRI.
Third, building a global partnership on connectivity. Connectivity is the key of Belt and Road cooperation. We will uphold multilateralism, work to foster a framework led by the BRF and underpinned by multilateral and bilateral cooperation in various areas. We will find greater complementarity between the economic development initiatives and plans of interested countries and international organizations, step up bilateral cooperation and cooperation in third party markets and continue to develop international transportation and trade links, in order to help more countries improve connectivity. So far, 127 countries and 29 international organizations have signed the documents with China on BRI cooperation, which has effectively promoted the development on the economic linkages.
Forth, achieving fruitful outcomes on results-oriented cooperation. The BRI cooperation is result-oriented instead of becoming a talk show. In the run-up to and during the Forum, the parties reached 283 deliverables, a great many business representatives participated in the CEO conference and signed project cooperation agreements worth over US$64 billion. China has signed more than 100 multilateral and bilateral cooperation documents with concerned countries, released the report on Belt and Road cooperation progress, the analysis framework on debt sustainability for Belt and Road projects as well as the report of the BRF Advisory Council etc. A number of constructive suggestions on a high-quality and sustainable development of the Belt and Road on next stage were raised in Beijing.
This year’s Forum sends a clear message: more and more friends and partners are joining in Belt and Road cooperation out of their will, and the cooperation is enjoying wider popularity, higher quality and brighter prospects. The Forum has pointed the direction for Belt and Road cooperation and created an important opportunity to promote