Willing to turn OBOR into path for peace: Xi Jinping

Beijing [China], May 14 (ANI): While delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the two-day Belt and Road summit for international cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday called for joint efforts to build the OBOR into a road to peace and prosperity. Chinese Leader clarified that China has no intention to form a group detrimental to stability of the region and all countries should respect each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity , each other's development paths and each other core interests and major concerns, Xinhua News Agency quoted President Jinping as saying. Referring to the ancient Silk Road, Jinping stressed on the importance of various civilizations, including the Indus and Ganges civilizations and pledged an additional 100 billion yuan (about $14 billion) to the Silk Road fund. The Belt and Road initiative is "a project of the century" that will benefit people across the world. Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit, China Daily quoted Xi as saying. OBOR was proposed by Xi in 2013 and is a grand plan to connect Asia with Europe and Africa and beyond to boost interconnection and trade between Asia and the rest of the world. The China development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will set up special lending schemes respectively worth RMB250 billion equivalent and 130 billion equivalent to support Belt and Road cooperation on infrastructure, industrial capacity and financing, China Daily quoted Xi as saying. A total of 29 foreign heads of state and government leaders are attending the forum, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (ANI)