Dear guests and friends:

Good morning, everyone!

It is a great pleasure to attend the special session on the 10th anniversary of The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at the 7th National Congress of the Cuban Section of the Latin American Association of Asian and African Studies (ALADAA).

In September and October 2013, during his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the major initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, i.e. "The Belt and Road Initiative". 

Over the past ten years, the BRI has gradually progressed from concept to action and from vision to reality, with fruitful results, becoming a platform for opening up and cooperation between China and other countries around the world, bringing great benefits to countries and people along the “belt and road” and providing new impetus for world development and prosperity.

In the following, I would like to talk about the historical origin, rich substance, progress, and prospect of the Belt and Road Initiative.

I. The spirit of the Silk Road, shining through the past to the present

More than 2,000 years ago, the Chinese people opened up the ancient Silk Road with a simple desire for friendship and engagement, ushering in an era of great exchange in the history of human civilization. 

As early as 130 B.C., during the Han Dynasty in China, the imperial emissary Zhang Qian left Chang'an, the then capital, and embarked on a so-called journey to the West. He reached as far as the Black Sea, Italy, and Iran, opening an overland route from the East to the West. 

More than 1,000 years ago, the Maritime Silk Road emerged, starting from today's Guangzhou and Quanzhou and reaching the Indian subcontinent, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, opening up a new period of exchange of human civilizations. And then the land and sea Silk Roads developed simultaneously, with Chinese, Italian, and Moroccan travelers Du Huan, Marco Polo, and Ibn Battuta leaving their marks on the routes. 

In the early 15th century, during the Ming Dynasty in China, the famous Chinese navigator Zheng He made seven ocean voyages, leaving a legacy for the ages. 

The ancient Silk Road opened a new window of mutual learning and understanding among civilizations and friendly exchanges between countries, writing a new chapter on human development and progress.

The ancient Silk Road stretched for thousands of miles and lasted for a thousand years. The Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and understanding, and mutual benefit and win-win situation has become a valuable heritage of human civilization. 

The ancient Silk Road was not only a road of commerce and trade but also a road of friendship and civilization convergence. Along the ancient Silk Road, Chinese envoys brought Chinese silk, porcelain, lacquer, and iron to the West, and took pepper, flax, spices, grapes, and pomegranates to China by means of camel caravans and treasure ships with goodwill and friendship. Along the ancient Silk Road, Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations mingled, with Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam fusing and coexisting. Along the ancient Silk Road, Western astronomy, calendars, and medicine were introduced to China, while china’s four great inventions, namely paper making, gunpowder, printing and the compass, and silkworm breeding spread to the world. More importantly, the exchanges spurred new ideas. Buddhism, for example, originated in India, flourished in China, and was enriched in Southeast Asia; Confucianism, which originated in China, gained appreciation by European thinkers such as Leibniz and Voltaire.

Since the beginning of the new century, in the face of various global challenges, peace, development, and cooperation have become the common concern and strong desire of all countries in the world. In response to this historical trend, President Xi Jinping has proposed The Belt and Road Initiative which embodies and expands the thousand-year heritage of the Silk Road spirit.  

II. A decade's journey, enriching its substance and perfecting its mechanism

Since the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has been taking on the constructive views of all parties in a highly responsible manner and has been promoting and substantiating the Initiative.

1. On its substance

In March 2015, China issued The Vision and Actions on jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which expounded the background, the principles of joint contribution, the frameworks, the focus, and the mechanism of BRI cooperation, etc.

In April 2019, President Xi Jinping made a comprehensive, systematic, and profound elaboration on the high-quality BRI building, mainly proposing: 

The practice of "Three Common Principles": extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, advocating that everything should be done in consultation; all parties are equal participants, builders, and contributors sharing responsibility and risks, and the results of cooperation should benefit both sides and all parties. 

The adherence to "Three Approaches": open, green, and clean development. We should refrain from closed and exclusive "small circles", promote green development to protect our earth, insist that all cooperation should be operated under the sun, and combat corruption with zero tolerance. This is in a way in response to the accusations of  lack of transparency or export of pollution, and corruption. 

The realization of "Three Goals": high-standard, people-centered, and sustainable growth. Enterprises are encouraged to follow generally accepted international rules in project construction, operation, procurement, and project bidding and tendering, and to respect the laws and regulations of each country. We are committed to a philosophy of people-centered development, focusing on eradicating poverty, increasing employment, and improving people's livelihoods. We will ensure commercial and financial sustainability so that we can make a good start and a good finish.

The joint building of "Five Links": policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people ties. The key to building "the Belt and Road" is connectivity. The "Five Links" layout is not only about building roads and bridges, but also about all-round, three-dimensional, and network-like connectivity. They are an inseparable whole, with "hard links" in infrastructure, "soft links" in rules and standards, and "heart links" in connecting the hearts and minds of the people of the countries concerned.

The adherence to the general connectivity framework that consists of six corridors, six connectivity routes, and multiple countries and ports. The "six corridors" refer to the six major international economic cooperation corridors, including the New Eurasian Land Bridge, the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC), the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the China-Central and Western Asia Economic Corridor, the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIMEC); the "six routes" refer to railways, highways, shipping, aviation, pipelines and integrated information networks in space; the "multiple countries" refer to a group of countries that cooperate in the initial stage, and the "multiple ports" refer to a number of cooperative ports to ensure the safe and smooth flow of the major maritime transport routes.

2. On its mechanism 

After a decade of continuous efforts, various institutional mechanisms for developing the Belt and Road Initiative have gradually taken shape, and The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation has become the highest-level international cooperation platform under the BRI framework. 

In 2017 and 2019, China successfully hosted two such forums. During the first one, 29 heads of state and government and other leaders attended, and more than 1,600 representatives from more than 140 countries and 80 international organizations participated, resulting in 279 deliverables in five major categories. 

The second forum attracted more countries and international organizations to participate, with more than 6,000 foreign guests from 151 countries and 92 international organizations, including more than 30 foreign leaders, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, opening up a new phase of building the "Belt and Road" together.

After the success of the two forums, Chinese and foreign partners have initiated a series of multilateral dialogue and cooperation platforms in professional fields under the BRI framework, covering railways, ports, green development, energy, taxation, finance, media, think tanks, and other fields. International organizations or working mechanisms such as the Joint Working Group on CHINA RAILWAY Express, the Freight Train Services, the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC), the BRI Energy Partnership, the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Mechanism, the BRI Press Cooperation Alliance have been set up one after another. The China International Import Expo, which started in 2018, is attracting more and more attention from around the world since its inception in 2018.

I would like to add two mechanisms in particular. Guiding Principles on Financing the Development of the Belt and Road was launched by the Chinese Ministry of Finance in 2017 and is currently approved by 29 countries. It aims to bring into play both government and market forces, promote the joint participation of countries along the route, international organizations, financial institutions, and investors, and build a long-term, stable, sustainable, and risk-controlled diversified financing system. And Debt Sustainability Framework for Participating Countries of the Belt and Road Initiative was released by the Chinese Ministry of Finance in 2019, which not only demonstrates China's positive and open attitude towards debt sustainability but also reflects the importance China attaches to the actual national conditions and development needs of the low-income countries of the BRI. It helps to improve the scientificity of investment and financing decisions of BRI participating parties, strengthen the debt management capacity of the countries concerned, and promote the high-quality development of the BRI.

Some politicians and media in the US and the West have discredited the BRI and hyped the so-called "Chinese debt trap". In fact, according to the World Bank's International Debt Database, by the end of 2020, commercial and multilateral creditors accounted for 40% and 34% respectively of the public external debt structure of 82 low- and lower-middle-income countries, while bilateral official creditors accounted for only 26% and China accounted for less than 10%. Compared to developed Western countries, China has only in recent years started to loan money to some developing countries at a low-interest rate of 2.7% on average. China has not forced any country to borrow money and has never coerced debt. The so-called "Chinese debt trap" is purely a "narrative trap", and I hope our Latin American friends will be wary of it.

III. Fruitful results, "development belts" and "happiness roads" gradually built 

Over the past ten years, China has deepened its dovetailing with the development plans and policies of various parties through the BRI. 

At the global level, The Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the United Nations Development Programme on Jointly Promoting the Construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road was signed at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September 2016. This is the first MOU signed between the Chinese government and an international organization to jointly build the BRI and a major innovation in the participation of international organizations in BRI construction. 

In the same year, 193 UN member states adopted a consensus resolution welcoming economic cooperation initiatives such as the BRI and calling on the international community to provide a safe and secure environment for the BRI construction. At the same time, the BRI has effectively dovetailed with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, creating a policy synergy to promote common global development.

At the regional level, the BRI has effectively dovetailed with regional or complemented development plans or cooperation initiatives such as the ASEAN Connectivity Master Plan, the African Union Agenda 2063, and the European Union Eurasian Connectivity Strategy, and reached a consensus on promoting connectivity and supporting regional economic integration. 

China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road has become increasingly close and has become the largest trading partner of 25 countries along the Belt and Road. From 2013 to 2021, the total value of China's imports and exports with countries along the Belt and Road increased from 6.5 trillion yuan to 11.6 trillion yuan, accounting for 25% to 29.7% of China's total foreign trade value in the same period. In the first 11 months of 2022, China's trade volume with its BRI partners grew by 20.4% against the trend. Chinese enterprises invested RMB 128.38 billion in non-financial direct investment in countries along the Belt and Road, up 10.5% year-on-year (equivalent to US$ 19.16 billion, up 6.5% year-on-year).

At the bilateral level, as of 6 January 2023, China has signed BRI cooperation documents with 151 countries. The list of successful cooperation projects is long. 

For example, China has established more than 50 capacity cooperation projects with Kazakhstan, which has become an important transit country for China-EU freight trains, and the China-Kazakhstan Lianyungang Logistics Cooperation Base has become an important hub for exports from Kazakhstan to the Asia-Pacific region.

In the first half of 2022, the number of CHINA RAILWAY Express entering and leaving the country via Xinjiang port set another record. This is a beautiful sight to behold when the Covid-19 pandemic has severely hampered international ocean shipping and aviation. 

China is already Indonesia's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade exceeding the US$120 billion mark in 2021 in its history. The 142-kilometer-long Jakarta-Bundung high-speed railway, the first in Southeast Asia, has successfully completed its trial run. This is the first time that China exported its high-speed railway system. 

"To get rich, Build roads" has been an important experience of China's development. It is now happening in more and more developing countries. 

In Kenya, the first modern railway, Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, has been in operation for five years, contributing more than 2% to Kenya's gross national product. 

The China-Laos Railway has been in operation for more than a year and has sent more than 10 million passengers and 13 million tons of goods. 

The UAE Railway has created 17,000 local jobs and trained a large number of railway construction and management talents in the second phase of the project alone. 

On January 24, 2023, the opening ceremony of the first phase of the Lagos Light Rail Blue Line project in Nigeria was held. This is the first electrified urban light rail transit project in West Africa designed, built, constructed, and operated by Chinese enterprises, and has become the new national card of Nigeria

I want to add, the China-gifted African Disease Prevention and Control Centre was recently opened when the new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang visited Africa.

IV. Natural extension, benefiting the people of Latin America

Latin America and the Caribbean are a natural extension of the BRI. Direct links between China and Latin America began in the second half of the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty, when two galleons laden with Chinese goods left the Spanish colony of Manila in the Philippines for the Americas on July 1, 1573, arriving in the Mexican port of Acapulco in November of the same year, thus starting the first friendly relations between China and Latin America. 

To this day, the city of Acapulco celebrates the history of friendship between China and Latin America with an annual "Chinese Boat" festival on November 17. From the late 16th century to the first half of the 17th century, thousands of Chinese arrived in Mexico and Peru along the "Maritime Silk Road", bringing Chinese silk, porcelain, handicrafts, and other cultural customs to Latin America. 

At the same time, the "Manila Galleon", known as the "Chinese Ship", also brought the Mexican silver dollar "Eagle Ocean", as well as Latin American corn, potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and tobacco to China, which contributed to the development of China's financial sector and the diversification of the Chinese people's diet, and promoted material and cultural exchanges between China and Latin America.

For centuries, China and Latin America have maintained civil trade relations. After the founding of New China, the 1960s and 1980s saw surges in diplomatic relations between China and Latin America. 

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China-Latin America relations have entered a new era under President Xi Jinping's leadership, and the two sides have continued to promote mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation around the high-quality construction of the "Belt and Road", with the China-Latin America Forum as the backbone. 

At the Second Ministerial Meeting of the China-Latin America Forum in 2018, China and Latin America issued the Special Declaration on The Belt and Road Initiative. Since then, Latin American countries have signed BRI agreements with China one after another.

To date, 21 countries in the region have signed BRI cooperation documents with China, including Nicaragua and Argentina, which officially joined in 2022, once again demonstrating the strong attractiveness of the BRI. 

In recent years, China has continued to maintain its position as the second largest trading partner of Latin America, and in 2021, the total trade volume between China and Latin America reached a record high, exceeding US$450 billion. 

China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation has shown resilience amid the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first three quarters of 2022, the total trade volume between China and Latin America amounted to approximately US$373.475 billion, up 12.5% year-on-year, injecting vitality and confidence into the world’s economic recovery. 

While traditional trade and investment exchanges continue to show strong dynamism, the two sides continue to develop practical cooperation in areas such as infrastructure, green energy, and digital technology to better benefit local people. Brazil's Mirador ultra-high voltage transmission project is known as the "Brazilian Electricity Highway". The photovoltaic power plant in Jujuy province of Argentina provides clean energy for 170,000 local households, while the General Manuel Belgrano Railway in Argentina and Metro Line 1 in Bogota, Colombia have become the shining examples of China and Latin America in building the Belt and Road together. 

In 2022, the 5th China International Import Expo saw the presentation of high-quality products from Latin America, such as freeze-dried powder from Asai, Brazil, wine from Argentina and chocolate from Colombia. During this year's Spring Festival, Chilean cherries, Peruvian blueberries and Uruguayan beef became popular New Year's products on Chinese e-commerce platforms, while Ecuadorian roses and Colombian hydrangeas sold well in Guangzhou, the "City of Flowers". 

China has provided thousands of wheat germplasm resources to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Texcoco (CIMMYT), Mexico, and 13 new maize varieties bred by the two sides have been planted in Nepal and other countries, helping to increase local grain production and income. 

People-to-people exchanges between the two regions have continued to rise. The Chinese New Year has become a national holiday in Panama, and in 2022, the city of Recife in Brazil passed a bill to make the Chinese New Year an official holiday in the city. 

Latin America and the Caribbean are rising continents and fertile fields of hope. In his video message to the 7th LAC Summit in January this year, President Xi Jinping pointed out that Latin American and Caribbean countries are an important part of developing countries and active participants and contributors to global governance, and that LAC has become an indispensable driving force of global South-South cooperation, playing an important role in maintaining regional peace, promoting common development and advancing regional integration. 

In essence, China-Latin America cooperation is South-South cooperation, based on the premise of mutual respect, the principle of mutual benefit and win-win situation, the quality of openness and inclusiveness, and the goal of common development, in line with the world and historical trend, and in the common interests of the countries in the region. 

It is with this conviction that China, together with the Latin American side, has been strengthening the China-Latin America Forum and promoting a new era of equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness, and benefit to the people in China-Latin America relations. More and more countries in the region are cooperating with China to promote the high-quality construction of the BRI, supporting and participating in global development and security initiatives, and joining hands with China to build a China-Latin America community of shared future for mankind.

175 years ago, the first Chinese laborers arrived in Cuba, opening a new chapter of contact between the two peoples. In 1960, Cuba became the first country in the Western Hemisphere to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. 

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the relationship between the two countries has endured changes and has been strengthened over the years. 

Cuba has been actively supporting the BRI. In 2018, the two countries signed The Memorandum of Understanding on Jointly Promoting the Construction of the Belt and Road and The Memorandum of Understanding on Promoting the First Key Projects of China-Cuba Production Capacity and Investment Cooperation. 

At the end of 2021, the two governments signed The Cooperation Plan on Jointly Promoting the BRI Construction, and in November 2022, during the visit to China by Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of Cuba, the two sides further agreed to deepen high-quality cooperation in BRI building, implement the cooperation plan, and strengthen cooperation in areas of common interests such as biotechnology, renewable energy, health, economy, trade, finance, and cyber security, which will facilitate the effective integration of the Cuban side into the Initiative.

The BRI between Cuba and China has borne fruit in areas such as agriculture, education, biotechnology, and renewable energy. 

Last year, the Cuban National Pavilion of Excellence was opened in Jingdong, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in China, and Cuban honey and guava successfully entered the Chinese market. 

Cuba's monoclonal antibodies, interferon, and other leading products have been launched in China, and more than 30 biotechnology cooperation projects between the two sides have been accelerated. 

The two countries are also actively exploring cooperation in the energy sector. With both Chinese government grants and commercial investment, Chinese enterprises have built a number of solar photovoltaic parks in Cuba, which helped expand the use of renewable energy. Among them, the photovoltaic park in the Mariel Development Special Zone, jointly invested by China, Britain, and Cuba, has a total capacity of 61.9 megawatts and has now been successfully connected to the national power grid. 

The Sino-Cuban joint venture Ciro Redondo Power Station has introduced advanced Chinese technology and pioneered the use of plant marabou as fuel, with a single boiler supplying 22 MW of electricity, making it a representative project of turning waste into treasure. 

Cuba was one of the first countries to accept Chinese students to study Spanish, and in 2022 the Sino-Cuban cooperation program to teach the Chinese language in Cuban secondary schools was introduced for the first time.

V. Sharing a common destiny, writing a new chapter of the era

The world today is faced with many global challenges, ongoing geopolitical tensions, uncertain prospects for economic recovery, and increased risks of division and confrontation. Mankind has once again come to a crossroads in history. The more complicated the international situation is, the greater the need for the leadership of strategic thinking, the greater the need for confidence in overcoming difficulties, and the greater the need for the strength of unity and progress. 

Facing the questions of the times: "What is happening to the world and what should China do?", General Secretary Xi Jinping stated clearly in his report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that the party is working for the happiness of the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, as well as for the human progress and world harmony. 

China has always adhered to the principle of maintaining world peace and promoting common development in its foreign policy and is committed to promoting the building of a community of shared future for mankind.

The BRI is rooted in history, but is more oriented towards the future; it originated from China but belongs to the world. The BRI is an important approach to building a community with a shared future for mankind, and it has injected impetus into solving the global development deficit. It is an endeavor to achieve the "global edition of common prosperity”, which truly meets the needs and expectations of all countries in the world. 

This year, the third Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation will be held. China will work with all parties to organize a successful forum and take the tenth anniversary of the BRI as an opportunity to summarize achievements and draw a blueprint, further promoting the high-quality BRI development

We will strive to build the Belt and Road into a road of peace, prosperity, openness, greenness, innovation, civilization, and integrity, so as to continue to provide new impetus for the common development of all countries, open up new space for global economic cooperation, and make new contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. 

Thank you!

***

The Latin American Association for Asian and African Studies (ALADAA), founded in 1976 by the Centre for Asian and African Studies of the College of Mexico, is the leading academic institution for the study of Asian and African issues in Latin America. It currently has national chapters in 13 countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Association and its chapters in each country hold biennial congresses. The Cuban Chapter maintains close collaboration with Havana University, Centre for Research of International Policy (CIPI) and Higher Institute of International Relations Raúl Roa García, among others, in organizing relevant academic activities.