Chinese President Xi Jinping was joined by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday as he laid out a new 8-point plan for his Belt and Road initiative, reworked to deliver "high-quality," growth for China and another path to prosperity for the developing world. Photo by Sergey Guneev/EPA-EFE
Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping presented his "alternate" development vision for the Global South on Wednesday as he kicked off a 140-country gathering to promote his $1 trillion "Belt and Road" initiative.
Joined by his "old friend" Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi laid out a new 8-point BRI plan to deliver "high-quality" growth and another path to prosperity for the developing world than that peddled by the West which he said was stunting progress with economic sanctions and an obsession with democratic reforms.
"We do not engage in ideological confrontation, geopolitical games, or form confrontational political cliques," said Xi as he opened the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
The revised plan promises a greater focus on green development, including green infrastructure and energy and transport cooperation, hosting green conferences and training for 100,000 people from developing nations, and boosting support for BRI international alliances to transform the "lowlands of development into the highlands of prosperity."
Other elements of Xi's 8-point plan include a $47.8 billion financing pledge from Chinese development banks, a logistics corridor across Europe and Asia, a "Silk Road e-commerce zone", with more free-trade agreements and investment treaties, and pledges on scientific development and artificial intelligence.
Putin, on just his second trip outside of Russia since being issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, congratulated Xi by saying Belt and Road was succeeding in its goal of creating an equitable framework to deliver "collective and truly effective solutions" to the important and relevant problems confronting the world
"Russia and China and many countries share the vision of equal cooperation while respecting diversity," he said adding that the initiative integrated "very well" with international projects and that its structure aligned with Russia's thinking.
"When we start something we expect it to be successful but understanding the global scale of the project initiated by Xi Jinping 10 years ago, it was expected that not everything would go great, but China managed to do that and we are happy to see it," Putin said.
Both leaders, however, restricted their remarks solely to the BRI and economic issues, steering well away from contentious international issues such as Ukraine or the Middle East.
