China launches cross-border BRI train with Laos
China on Friday launched the first cross-border train of its multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Laos, which Beijing says will help the small and only landlocked country in South East Asia turn into a land-linked hub, boost regional connectivity and supply chain resilience.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Laos' counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith jointly witnessed the opening of the China-Laos railway via video link on Friday.
The first train of the China-Laos Railway left Vientiane soon after the crossborder railway was officially put into operation, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Besides China, Laos shares borders with Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, which offered Beijing to extend the train project to those countries.
Laos is the only landlocked country in South East Asia. Like China, which is ruled by the Communist Party, it is a one-party socialist republic governed by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.
The 1,035-km electrified passenger and cargo railway, connecting Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province with Laos' capital
Vientiane, fully adopts Chinese technical standards and consists of two sections, the report said.
Construction of the section in Laos from the border town of Boten to Vientiane started in December 2016, and construction of the section in China from the city of Yuxi to the border town of Mohan started in December 2015.
With a maximum operating speed of 160-km per hour, the travel time from Kunming to Vientiane takes about 10 hours, including customs clearance time.
This is the first cross-border project under the BRI, China's multibillion-dollar project in different countries with Chinese investments enhancing Beijing's global influence.