Xi promotes foreign initiative

CHINESE President Xi Jinping promised yesterday to set high standards for Beijing’s sweeping infrastructure-building initiative as fellow leaders praised the effort despite worries it leaves some developing countries in huge debt.

Xi avoided mentioning debt in a speech at a Belt and Road forum celebrating his signature foreign initiative. But he promised changes in response to complaints about costs, possible corruption and environmental damage.

Beijing wants “open, green and clean co-operation” with “zero tolerance for corruption”, Xi said.

Developing countries have welcomed the initiative, launched in 2013, to expand trade by building roads, ports and other facilities from Asia through Africa and the Middle East to Europe. But some governments are struggling to repay Chinese loans.

The US, Japan, India and Russia chafe at the expansion of Beijing’s influence through building trade and political networks centred on China.

Despite that, Russian president Vladimir Putin praised the initiative yesterday, saying it dovetails with the goals of a Russian-promoted market with four neighbours, the Eurasian EU.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said it could help turn the balance in mitigating climate change.

It is “not an exclusive club” and promotes “common development and prosperity,” Xi said. He said it would embrace international standards for project development, purchasing and operations.

In March, Italy became the first of the Group of Seven to sign an agreement to support Belt and Road. |

AP

AP ANA CHINESE President Xi Jinping, Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the opening ceremony of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Co-operation in Beijing, yesterday. |