Connotation of BRI
In September and October 2013, President Xi Jinping raised the initiatives of joining with others to build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, known collectively as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The BRI takes on the Silk Road spirit characterized by peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit.
It adheres to the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, open, green, and clean cooperation, and high standards, better lives, and sustainability. It focuses on promoting connectivity and strengthening policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and closer people-to-people ties with other countries. It constantly expands cooperation in new areas such as green development, health, digital economy, and innovation.
In October 2023, President Xi announced at the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) eight major steps China will take to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, indicating Belt and Road cooperation has entered a new stage of high-quality development.
The BRI emphasizes that by working together and helping each other, we can achieve more. It advocates the idea of promoting the common development of others while pursuing one's own development, practices connectivity and mutual benefit, and seeks common development and win-win cooperation, providing impetus for global economic growth, building a platform for international economic cooperation, and creating space for global common development.
It has become a widely welcomed international public good and the world's largest platform for international cooperation, with the broadest coverage. Looking ahead, China expects that high-quality Belt and Road cooperation will become an engine to promote the common development of all countries and an accelerator to achieve the modernization of the world.
