Full text of President Xi's written interview with Russian media

Q3. The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) you hosted in May was a great success. What do you think of the outcomes? What are your expectations about the Belt and Road Initiative? How do you see Russia's role in the building of the Belt and Road?

Xi: I put forward the initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in 2013 in my visits to Central Asia and Southeast Asia. The initiative aims to strengthen international cooperation and synergize national development strategies for greater complementarity and common development. Over the past four years, the Belt and Road cooperation has made steady progress and won extensive support, attracting active participation of many parties and yielding substantial "early harvests". This set the stage for the success of the BRF held this May in Beijing, a meeting to review what had been achieved and chart the course for the future. The leaders of 29 countries, the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund attended the Forum together with some 1,600 representatives from more than 140 countries and 80 international organizations. Under the theme "Belt and Road: Cooperation for Common Prosperity", the participants had in-depth discussions on promoting policy synergy for closer partnership, enhancing connectivity and facilitating people-to-people exchanges. They reviewed the progress of Belt and Road cooperation and reached many agreements, including 76 items comprising more than 270 concrete results in five areas, sending out a positive message about building the cooperation platform, re-energizing the world economy and rekindling confidence in economic globalization.

We will take the BRF as an opportunity to enhance policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity guided by the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We will increase policy coordination and complementarity between development strategies, take connectivity as a priority area of cooperation, support faster development of economic corridors, advance cooperation on international production capacity and equipment manufacturing, and work more closely on education, science and technology, culture and healthcare. Together, we can unlock new drivers for economic growth, achieve common development and build a community of shared future for mankind.

President Putin was the first foreign leader to accept my invitation to attend the BRF, which reflected Russia's important support for China as the host and the high-level nature of China-Russia relationship. In May 2015, China and Russia reached important agreement to seek complementarity and cooperation between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union, which won the applause and support of other members of the Eurasian Economic Union. Two years on, steady and notable progress has been made in this cooperation. China will work with Russia to fully leverage the complementarity between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union and keep moving China-Russia relations forward.