ALIGNMENT WITH EEU
In the Eurasian region, most of China's neighbors have expressed willingness to link their own development strategies with the Belt and Road Initiative.
Russia, a comprehensive strategic partner of coordination to China, has agreed to integrate its aspirations under the EEU framework, whose main objective is to form a single market within the borders of its member countries by 2025, with the Silk Road Economic Belt proposal.
During Xi's visit to Russia in May, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on the alignment of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the EEU.
Observers said the joint statement, another major development of the Belt and Road Initiative in Eurasia, is of important and far-reaching significance to the economic growth in the region and the world at large.
During a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Russia's Ufa in July, Xi and Putin agreed to regard the regional bloc as an important platform to dovetail the Silk Road Economic Belt plan with the EEU blueprint.
Mars Saliev, a Kyrgyz political analyst, said he believes that the Belt and Road Initiative would provide a powerful boost to the economic development of SCO members.
Recalling that over the past years Kyrgyzstan has transported a large quantity of goods from China to other SCO members and even European countries, he said the Belt and Road Initiative offers Kyrgyzstan new opportunities to become a major transit center in Eurasia.
If the railway project between China and Kyrgyzstan is successfully implemented, the Central Asian country will obtain a convenient route through Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to Europe, the analyst said.
HUGE POTENTIAL FOR ASEAN'S DEVELOPMENT
Following the announcement of the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative in Kazakhstan in September 2013, Xi traveled to southeast Asia a month later and unveiled the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative to strengthen regional infrastructure and trade with countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Infrastructure construction and inter-connectivity enhancement within ASEAN are essential to the bloc's goal of building an economic community and creating a competitive market of over 600 million people with free flow of goods, services, investment capital and skilled labor.
As the Belt and Road Initiative meets the demand of ASEAN countries and has huge potential in fueling the bloc's development, it has noticeably propelled healthy development of China's relations with its southeast Asian neighbors.
In November, Xi paid his first visits to Vietnam and Singapore, two key ASEAN countries, since he became Chinese president in 2013.
During the visits, China and Vietnam signed an agreement on studying the feasibility of a railway program in northern Vietnam within the frameworks of China's Belt and Road Initiative and Vietnam's Two Corridors and One Economic Circle plan.
In an address at the National University of Singapore, Xi said China's neighboring countries are the primary cooperation partners under the Belt and Road Initiative and should be the first to enjoy the benefits from it.
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, an advisor to the finance minister of Sri Lanka, said at the 2nd ASEAN Development Forum earlier this month that the China-proposed initiative is dedicated to development, cooperation and openness, and characterized by equality and mutual benefit on the basis of consultation, cooperation and sharing.
In particular, the least developed countries and developing countries will benefit substantially from the initiative, he said.
