Photo taken on July 2, 2016, shows a view of Gwadar Port in southwest Pakistan. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
senior UN official in charge of development policy analysis told Xinhua that China's Belt and Road Initiative is conducive to promoting the global efforts to carry out the 2030 Agenda, approved by world leaders in September last year to serve as the blueprint for the world development efforts for the next 15 years.
Hong Pingfan, director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said in a recent interview with Xinhua that "the essential spirit of the Belt and Road Initiative is to promote win-win cooperation, common development and prosperity, peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness and mutual understanding and trust, and this is to a large extent in line with that of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development."
SHARED VISION AND PRINCIPLES
"While the Belt and Road Initiative and the 2030 Agenda are different in their nature and scope, they share in many respects a similar vision and some basic principles," he said.
The 2030 Agenda declares that the Agenda is guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, he noted, adding that meanwhile, as the Vision and Action on the Belt and Road Initiative states, the initiative is in conformity with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
"The 2030 Agenda resolves to create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all, taking into account different levels of national development and capacities," he said.
"The Belt and Road Initiative stressed the need to be harmonious and inclusive, advocating tolerance among civilizations, respects the paths and modes of development chosen by different countries," he said. "It supports dialogues among different civilizations on the principles of seeking common ground while shelving differences and drawing on each other's strengths, so that all countries can coexist in peace for common prosperity."
"The 2030 Agenda reaffirms that every state has, and shall freely exercise, full permanent sovereignty over all its wealth, natural resources and economic activity," he said. "It also reaffirms the commitment to international law and emphasizes that the Agenda is to be implemented in a manner that is consistent with the rights and obligations of states under international law."
"In comparison, the Belt and Road Initiative upholds the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual nonaggression, mutual noninterference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence," he said.
China launched in late 2013 the initiative of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, collectively known as the Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road run through the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, connecting the vibrant East Asia economic circle at one end and developed European economic circle at the other, and encompassing countries with huge potential for economic development.
