PRESIDENT Xi Jinping yesterday said that China will continue to work with other parties in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

While delivering a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021, Xi said that China will expand health cooperation with various parties in infectious disease control, public health, traditional medicine and other areas to jointly protect the lives and health of people in all countries.

China will build a closer partnership for connectivity, and work with all sides to promote “hard connectivity” of infrastructure and “soft connectivity” of rules and standards, Xi said.

He said the country will build a closer partnership for green development and called for strengthening cooperation on green infrastructure, green energy and green finance.

He also called for improving the BRI International Green Development Coalition, the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road Development and other multilateral cooperation platforms “to make green a defining feature of Belt and Road cooperation.”

Xi stressed that China will work with all willing participants to build the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into a pathway to poverty alleviation and growth.

By 2030, Belt and Road projects could help lift 7.6 million people from extreme poverty and 32 million people from moderate poverty across the world, Xi said, citing a World Bank report.

“We will act in the spirit of openness and inclusiveness as we work with all willing participants to build the BRI into a pathway to poverty alleviation and growth, which will contribute positively to the common prosperity of humankind,” he said.

Xi also noted that the call for upholding multilateralism has grown stronger as we live in an age rife with challenges.

“The future of the world should be decided by all countries working together. We must not let the rules set by one or a few countries be imposed on others, or allow unilateralism pursued by certain countries to set the pace for the whole world.”

“What we need in today’s world is justice, not hegemony. Big countries should behave in a manner befitting their status and with a greater sense of responsibility,” he underscored, calling for all countries to safeguard the U.N.-centered international system.

China has been demonstrating its role as a responsible major country in international affairs. On April 13, it paid in full all assessed contributions to the U.N. regular budget and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals for the year 2021. Over the past 30 years, China has sent over 40,000 peacekeepers to 25 U.N. peacekeeping missions.

“Openness holds the key to post-COVID economic recovery,” Xi pointed out. “We need to promote trade and investment liberation and facilitation, deepen regional economic integration, and enhance supply, industrial, data and human resources chains, with a view to building an open world economy.”

Attempts to “erect walls” or “decouple” run counter to the law of economics and market principles. They would hurt others’ interests without benefiting oneself, Xi noted. (Xinhua)