Russian minister discusses Silk Road Economic Belt initiative

BEIJING, April 15 (Itar-Tass) - Russia pays great attention to all the initiatives put forward by China, its strategic ally and a good friend, and the Silk Road Economic Belt project initiative is not an exception, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says in an interview with China daily published Tuesday. “As far as we understand, the main task of the Silk Road Economic Belt is to promote the collective development of a huge territory, including a number of regions - from the northwestern provinces of China, Central Asia to the Caucasus and Central and Eastern Europe,” Lavrov says. “The project should promote comprehensive economic growth, creation of infrastructure, logical clusters, consolidation of trade and investment ties, and expansion of humanitarian cooperation, he goes on. “So, the tasks are rather ambitious. It is evident that their implementation will require common efforts of all the states concerned on the basis of mutual interests.” Lavrov says that, in this regard, Moscow notes the willingness of the Chinese partners to respect Russian interests, as well as “Beijing's readiness to interact with Russia in order to develop a substantive agenda for the project.” He recalls that the issue was discussed in detail during the meeting between Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping in February in Sochi. They agreed to boost cooperation, including in the framework of economic and transport agencies, “in order to implement joint projects, inter alia, by possible aligning of the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ with the processes of the Eurasian integration and the projects of modernization of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline.” “A Russian-Chinese expert dialogue on this issue is going to be launched as a follow-up to the agreements reached by our leaders,” Lavrov says. Learn more on itar-tass.com