Roundup: Xi's fruitful trip to Pakistan, Indonesia gains global applause

Chinese President Xi Jinping's just-concluded trip to Pakistan and Indonesia has attracted great attention from the international community.

Scholars and experts worldwide chorused that the tour, Xi's first abroad this year, once again testified to Beijing's commitment to win-win cooperation and peaceful development.

During Xi's state visit to Pakistan, the two sides lifted their relationship to an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and signed over 50 cooperation deals covering such fields as infrastructure, energy and agriculture.

One project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, merits extra attention. As part of the China-proposed Belt and Road initiatives, it serves as a model program in bilateral cooperation and bears great significance to regional development.

Moreover, China's Silk Road Fund has chosen a hydropower project in Pakistan as its first investment.

Saeed Ibrahim, a professor of Kabul University, told Xinhua that China-Pakistan cooperation in building roads, ports and other infrastructure will drive the whole regional economic growth and create more job opportunities for the benefit of all governments and peoples in the region.

Against the backdrop of increasing security challenges to Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries in the region, China, as a peace-loving country, has both capability and will in maintaining peace and stability, the fundamental basis of all practical cooperation, he added.

While addressing an Asian-African summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, Xi called for concerted efforts to build a community of common destiny for all mankind in line with the time-honored Bandung Spirit of solidarity, friendship and cooperation.

For that end, he raised a three-point proposal -- to boost Asia-Africa cooperation, expand South-South cooperation and strengthen South-North cooperation -- and urged the developed countries to honor their aid pledges for their developing peers and offer more assistance with no political strings attached.

M.D. Nalapat, a professor of India's Manipal University, lauded the spirit of equality conveyed in Xi's speech, saying that China treats other nations like friends on an equal footing.

African countries will greatly benefit from China's Belt and Road initiatives, Bethwel Kinuthia, an economist at the University of Nairobi, said. "The Silk Road will enhance interactions among Asian and African people."

Meanwhile, it will promote friendship and knowledge sharing in a series of fields like education, technology, culture, agriculture, manufacturing and medicine, he said.

At the summit, Xi pledged, among others, that China will provide 100,000 training opportunities for developing nations in Asia and Africa in the coming five years.

Samuel Stevquoah, chief of staff at the office of Liberia's vice president, said he highly appreciates China's provision of training opportunities for developing countries.

"This is very important for us. We always look for opportunities to build the youth's capacity and make them stronger," he said. Endi