Polish official: Belt and Road is most promising for China, Europe

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski spoke highly of China's One Belt One Road Initiative, saying that it's the most promising cooperation platform between China and Europe, in his speech given in Beijing today.

Waszczykowski is on an official visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He arrived Saturday and ends the trip on Wednesday.

After visiting Chengdu, capital of southwestern China's Sichuan province, a starting station of the China-Europe railway opened last year, Waszczykowski shared his understanding and expectations on the relationship and cooperation between China and Central and East European countries.

He said:

"With regard to the economic aspect of EU-China contacts, I would single out the Chinese Belt and Road Initiatives as the most promising platform for cooperation between Europe and the People's Republic of China. Poland highly estimates this major initiative. We view it as a multifaceted project which ambitiously escalates beyond the questions of trade and transportation connectivity between the partnering countries. The Belt and Road introduces a new quality into Europe-Asia relations. If the initiative succeeds, it will work out a new formula of a strategic relationship between our two continents, based not only on the enhanced, comprehensive and mutually beneficial economic cooperation, but also on the advanced dialogue and boosted inter-civilizational trust.

"As a strong country of Central and Eastern Europe, Poland is willing to take an active part in forging a synergy of initiatives within the Belt and Road, coupling them with EU projects implemented in the fields of infrastructure and transportation. It is worth mentioning the so-called "connectivity platform" which implies a mechanism identifying common interests and sectors of potential cooperation within the framework of infrastructural and transport policies of the EU and China. I am convinced that the initiative "16 + 1", which bridges the economies of 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and China, could contribute considerably to the "connectivity platform" and facilitate the implementation of common projects.

"In this context, I would also like to commend the activities undertaken by the summit organized in the "16 + 1" format at Suzhou in China. This summit dotted the i's (infrastructure) and crossed the t's (transportation) by underscoring that EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe, engaged in the project, pursued cooperation within this format according to EU legislation, regulations and policies. The "16 + 1" cooperation thus clearly became portrayed as a valuable complement to the overall EU-China liaison."