China hints at linking Belt and Road Initiative to EU’s Global Gateway strategy

By Riyaz ul Khaliq and Alperen Aktas

ISTANBUL (AA) – China hinted Wednesday at linking its Belt and Road Initiative with the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy, accepting competition from a “positive perspective.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, while detailing the outcome of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing, expressed a “willingness” to link China’s multi-trillion-dollar global infrastructure initiative with the EU's template “to play out the advantages of both China and the West.”

China, Wang said, was willing to “to view competition from a positive perspective,” the Beijing-based Global Times reported.

Beijing hosted the two-day forum from Tuesday, which was attended by more than 10,000 delegates from around 151 countries and 41 international organizations, which shows the “appeal and global influence” of the Belt and Road Initiative, said Wang.

He added that a total of 458 cooperation results were achieved at the forum.

Some 25 presidents, vice presidents and prime ministers were among the audience besides UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Viewing the US-proposed Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment as a counter to the Belt and Road Initiative is a means to politicize economic issues, which is short-sighted as well as negative,” Wang said at the end of the event.

"Let's compete on the world stage. Who can build more roads, railways and bridges for developing countries? Who can build more schools, hospitals and stadiums for people in low-income countries? China has this confidence,” he added.

According to Wang, the third Belt and Road Forum had four takeaways, including the “clearest signal, i.e. unity, opening-up and win-win cooperation besides the consensus to take Belt and Road cooperation to a new stage of high-quality development.”

The third takeaway is to “jointly achieve global modernization.”

“The fourth and the most prominent feature of this year's forum is action-oriented efficiency and pragmatism,” said Wang.

The Belt and Road Initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade infrastructure, was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to connect China with the markets of Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

With more than 200 cooperation agreements spread across 150 countries and 30 international organizations, the cumulative value of imports and exports between China and the partner countries has reached $19.1 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 6.4% from 2013 until 2022.