Beijing has welcomed dozens of world leaders and hundreds of business representatives at the Belt and Road Forum where China’s president, Xi Jinping, provided a platform for building a new reality of fair and mutually-beneficial cooperation.
15 May 2017
Russia will actively participate in implementing the ‘One Belt, One Road' initiative, Vladimir Putin said on the second day of the forum in Beijing.
"All the proposals [under the One Road, One Belt initiative] are in the trend of modern development and are deemed to be extremely necessary and highly demanded," the Russian president said. "This is why Russia not only supports 'One Road, One Belt' project, but will also actively participate in its implementation jointly with its Chinese partners and, of course, with all other interested countries.”
The Chinese president emphasized that creating a solid network of roads and transportation links will ensure the success of Chinese Silk Road initiative. Addressing heads of state and international delegations on the second day of the forum, Xi Jinping also stressed the need to create major energy projects to support the initiative. He also encouraged greater cultural exchanges between partner states.
14 May 2017
Vladimir Putin also met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. Russia’s president thanked the Chinese official for his efforts in ensuring the successful development of the ties between the two countries. “Not only were we able to cope with trade and economic decline, but we also entered a path for growth,” the Russian leader said, adding that “it is important to maintain this upward trend.”
Germany said it would not sign a joint statement at the Chinese new Silk Road forum if the document did not include guarantees on free trade and fair competition, German Minister for Economics and Energy Brigitte Zypries said at the meeting.
"If these demands are not met, then we cannot sign. We'll see what happens tomorrow," she said during a press briefing on the sidelines of the meeting. She also called for greater transparency in tenders for the new Silk Road program’s projects.
"Germany does want to take part (in the initiative), but tenders need to be open to everyone. Only then will German companies take part," she said. The minister also criticized China’s restrictions limiting foreign companies’ ability to buy assets in China.
"We want German companies to be able to operate in China in the same way Chinese companies can in Germany," she said.
Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Felix Gonzalez welcomed the new Silk Road initiative in Beijing. He warned, however, that the plan could face obstacles created by countries who view it as a threat to their national interests.
"We wish for those other countries in the world not to make any obstacles to the success of this initiative," he said, describing it as “fantastic.”
India, who refused to send an official delegation to the forum, has criticized the Beijing initiative and said the new Silk Road would create an “unsustainable debt burden” for the countries who sign up for the project.
The Indian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Gopal Baglay, also specifically said that his country would never accept a project which “compromises” its sovereignty – referring to the fact that the new Silk Road program includes infrastructure projects in Pakistan and the hotly disputed region of Kashmir.
"No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity," Baglay said, as cited by Reuters.
Vladimir Putin discussed Russia and China’s bilateral economic ties during his official meeting with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. The Russian president said that Russia and China are developing a number of “strategic initiatives” and welcomed an ongoing increase in bilateral trade.
China hopes to boost financial cooperation between participants of the new Silk Road program through the use of local currencies, the head of China’s Central Bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said, as reported by Reuters.
He added that an extensive use of local currencies within the framework of the project, also known as the Belt and Road initiative, could contribute to reducing costs while boosting financial stability in the region.
During the Silk Road forum, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion for the ambitious Belt and Road initiative, saying it will promote global trade and sustainable development.
“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,” he said, as quoted by Reuters. However, some Western diplomats have been wary of the proposal, seeing it as a move to expand Chinese influence globally.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, met during a lunch on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. Also present at the meeting were Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and some other top officials from both sides.
Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to give 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) in aid to countries and international organizations that take part in China’s new Silk Road project, Reuters reports. The Chinese leader also said that the project is open to all countries, including those in Africa and Europe.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that the two countries should focus on combatting terrorism, citing Beijing’s concern about ethnic Uighurs from its Muslim-majority autonomous region of Xinjiang fighting alongside Islamists in the Middle East.
“In order to promote even greater development of relations, China and Turkey must respect and give consideration to each other’s core concerns, and deepen security and counter-terrorism cooperation,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry cited Xi as saying, according to Reuters.
Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, discussed the Astana peace process with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan.
“Addressing the results of the Astana peace process, Erdogan stressed its importance for further dialogue on Syria in Geneva,” the Kazakh presidential administration said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, voiced concern over the mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula.
“Of course, Putin and Xi discussed the situation in detail and expressed mutual concern over it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Sunday.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said the UK is a “natural partner” for China in the new Silk Road project, as it is leaving the EU and seeking to develop and expand trade, particularly with China.
“It is my belief that Britain, lying at the western end of the Belt and Road, is a natural partner in this endeavor. Britain has, for centuries, been one of the strongest advocates of an open global trading system,” he said, as cited by Reuters.
“Our ambition is for more trade, not less trade, and China clearly shares this ambition,” he added.
The President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, welcomed China's "ambitious" effort to lower trade costs and improve infrastructure with their new project.
Kim pointed out, however, that the ”sheer size of the initiatives" would require large initial investments. He also called for effective governance and customs procedures along the Silk Road
The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, called the new Belt and Road idea a "bold" and "groundbreaking" initiative with the "potential to raise living standards of over 70 percent of (the) world’s population."
Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani Prime Minister, called China's Silk Road proposal a "synergetic intercontinental cooperation" that will help "reform" global economic governance.
The “center of gravity should shift from conflict to cooperation" when building the new initiative, Sharif said.
The Pakistani government said it signed a number of deals with China worth about $500 million on Saturday, when Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the ‘Slik Road’ international forum, Reuters reported.
The two sides also discussed some issues concerning bilateral economic cooperation.
“The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a core component of your visionary initiative of the One Belt-One Road,” Sharif told Xi during the meeting, as cited by the Associated Press of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, also welcomed the Silk Road initiative which Athens believes will help its domestic economy. The Greek PM also noted that the Chinese proposal is "compatible with [Greece’s] own regional economic goals."
Czech Republic President Milos Zeman called the new Silk Road initiative the “most fascinating project in all our modern history.” He said an overwhelming majority of world politicians are confined within the limits of short-term decisions, which have consequences inside the function period or election period of the given politician.
“It is very easy, it is very comfortable, because there is no risk that your successor will eat the cream of your activity and that he will open the successful story of that long-term investment,” Zeman said, emphasizing that it requires great courage to engage in such a long term venture.
“In modern history, except for the Marshall Plan, there was practically no long-term projects,” he said, noting that even the unprecedented American 20th century investment to rebuild Western Europe is dwarfed by this new initiative.
Chile’s President, Michelle Bachelet, said the Silk Road has the capacity to become the “biggest economic cooperation project in place today,” emphasizing that her region “understands the need to be part of that major endeavor.”
Rounding-off the opening ceremony as the final speaker, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said the Silk Road project has “immense potential… far-reaching in geography and ambition.”
Taking the stage after Putin, Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan emphasized that a project of such scale will encourage greater intergovernmental cooperation and strengthen the “climate of solidarity” among all partners. The establishment of a new, coherent political and economic system will “pave the way in a new era,” said the Turkish leader leader whose country was an important point of convergence during the times of the ancient Silk Road.
Speaking immediately after the host of the conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, noted that, unfortunately, “protectionism and unlawful restrictions” have become the new norm in the modern world.
“We should set a role model for the global community of how we can work together, develop together, based on equality and respect for national sovereignty based on international law and the principles of the United Nations ,” Putin said.
The Russian leader also called for the construction of transport corridors and the creation of large-scale energy projects.
“Civilization project for the future,” as Putin called the New Silk Road, should bring stability and prosperity along its way.
“The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilization,” the Chinese president said at the opening of the forum. “We should build an open platform of cooperation and uphold and grow an open world economy.”
Xi stressed that the multi-continental Chinese initiative aims to build a “road of peace” where countries will respect the sovereignty and national interests of each other.
“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 an alliance,” he said.
The Chinese leader also announced that China will contribute an additional 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) to the Silk Road Fund.
“We should establish a stable and sustainable financial safeguard system that keeps risks under control, create new models of investment and financing, encourage greater cooperation between government and private capital and build a diversified financing system and a multi-tiered capital market,” the Chinese leader noted.