China secures free trade commitment from leaders

Beijing, May 15: President Xi Jinping criticised protectionism on Monday at a summit positioning China as a champion of globalisation, and secured a free trade commitment from almost 30 other world leaders as the meeting wound up.

Mr Xi addressed the leaders on the second day of the forum on his new Silk Road plan, a huge infrastructure project to revive land and sea trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa.

“Globalisation is encountering some headwinds,” Mr Xi told leaders from countries ranging from Spain to Turkey, Russia and Pakistan at a convention centre near

Xi compared countries to swan and geese that can fly long and safely through winds and storms because they move in tandem and help each other

the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing.

“We need to seek results through greater openness and cooperation, avoid fragmentation, refrain from setting inhibitive thresholds for cooperation or pursuing exclusive arrangements, and reject protectionism.” He compared countries to “swan and geese” that can “fly long and safely through winds and storms because they move in tandem and help each other as a team”.

The international gathering was called to promote Mr Xi’s signature foreign policy project, the One Belt, One Road initiative. He later announced that the summit reached “broad consensus” on the project. China would host another forum in 2019.

Participants in a joint communique declared, “We reaffirm our shared commitment to build open economy, ensure free and inclusive trade, (and) oppose all forms of protectionism, including in the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.”