Nine more countries join Belt and Road; $64-billion deals signed
BEIJING (Reuters) – President Xi Jinping on Saturday hailed deals worth more than $64 billion signed during China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Forum as well as the joining of “more friends and partners” this week as he sought to reassure skeptics the project will deliver sustainable growth for all involved.
“More and more friends and partners will join in Belt and Road cooperation,” Xi said in his closing remarks. “The cooperation will enjoy higher quality and brighter prospects.”
A document released after
the meeting showed that Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Luxembourg, Jamaica, Peru, Italy, Barbados, Cyprus, and Yemen were the latest countries to join the club.
Xi said market principles will apply in all Belt and Road cooperation projects and that his signature initiative to recreate the old Silk Road joining China with Asia and Europe will deliver green and high-quality development.
Xi said enterprises will be the main driver in all Belt and Road projects and market principles will apply, with governments providing a supporting role.
“This will make the projects more sustainable and create a fair and nondiscriminatory environment for foreign investors,” Xi said.
Xi and other top Chinese officials repeatedly sought to reassure partners and potential participants this week that Beijing does not intend to saddle them with high debts and wants BRI to benefit all parties involved.
A joint communique issued at the conclusion of the summit said that leaders had agreed to project financing that respects global debt goals and promotes green growth, in line with a draft seen by Reuters last week.
In a separate statement China said it signed a memorandum of understanding with various countries including Italy, Peru, Barbados, Luxembourg, Peru and Jamaica.
“All of this shows that Belt and Road cooperation is in synch with the times, widely supported, people centered and beneficial to all,” Xi said on Saturday.
Data from Refinitiv shows the total value of projects in the scheme stands at $3.67 trillion, spanning countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and South America.
Some partner nations have complained about the high cost of projects of BRI, which was launched in 2013, while some western governments view it as a means to spread Chinese influence abroad, leaving poor countries with unsustainable debt.
China said this week it would establish a framework on debt sustainability to “prevent and resolve debt risks” as part of its efforts to allay such fears.
While most Belt and Road projects are continuing as planned, some have been caught up by changes in government in countries such as Malaysia and the Maldives.
Xi did not elaborate on the types of deals signed this week. But on Friday China’s state asset regulator said that at least 17 central government-owned firms, including companies such as China Railway Construction Corp and Mengniu Dairy, signed deals at the Belt and Road summit.
The massive projects, financed mainly through Chinese bank loans and investments, have raised concerns that poorer countries are being saddled with debt – Sri Lanka turned over a deep-sea port to China for 99 years after it was unable to repay loans.
A communique released at the end of the meeting said leaders encouraged multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions to support projects “in fiscally sustainable ways” and mobilise private capital in line with local needs.
“We emphasize the importance of economic, social, fiscal, financial and environmental sustainability of projects,” it said.
The draft communique says BRI will welcome developed countries and international investors to participate in the projects.
“Faced with this rising resistance for the past year and a half and this debt image... China is trying to reposifactory
tion (BRI) and send a reassuring message,” said Nadege Rolland, a senior fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a US-based think tank.
But “let’s see how it is put into practice,” she said.
China’s finance ministry released guidelines Thursday for assessing financial risk and debt sustainability to apply to projects in BRI countries.
But the document notes that countries already facing payment problems or in the process of restructuring payments “does not automatically mean that debt is unsustainable in a forwardlooking sense.”
‘Civilized and soft’
Beijing also published a list Saturday of 283 “deliverables” that bore the Belt and Road brand name, including agreements between museums and
art festivals, and even cooperation on space – a clear sign that BRI is a major soft power tool for China as well.
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised China for acting in a “civilised and soft manner” and he took a veiled swipe at the United States.
“Nobody wants sanctions, nobody wants trade wars, except those who start them. These sanctions harm the world economy,” Putin said, adding that China “currently defends liberal values.”
BRI projects have faced pushback in some countries. In Malaysia, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad cancelled some planned works and renegotiated a rail project, cutting 30 percent off the price tag.
But Mahathir and other leaders attending the summit had fulsome praise for BRI.