2nd LD Writethru: China, Egypt agree to boost cooperation under Belt and Road Initiative

China and Egypt agreed here Thursday to expand cooperation under a grand development initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to promote common development along the historic land and maritime Silk Roads.

During their talks in the Quba Palace, Xi, who is here for a state visit to Egypt, and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, reached extensive consensus on jointly carrying out the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xi proposed that the two countries work together to build the Arab nation into a pivot of the Belt and Road, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

To that end, Xi suggested, China and Egypt should conjoin their development strategies and visions and focus on cooperation on infrastructure construction and production capacity.

Meanwhile, China is willing to participate in Egypt's key projects including the development of the Suez Canal Corridor and the construction of a new administrative capital, said Xi.

He added that Beijing is also ready to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, finance, space technology, energy, human resources development and security.

China, Xi said, attaches great importance to its ties with Egypt, and supports its efforts to restore stability and choose a development path that fits its own conditions.

He urged the two countries to firmly support each other's core interests, step up coordination within the United Nations, and maintain communication on both regional and global affairs, such as the Middle East situation and climate change.

Xi also suggested the two countries promote people-to-people interaction and boost cooperation in tourism, education, culture and other fields.

In the meeting, Xi also invited al-Sisi to attend the Group of 20 (G20) summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in September.

For his part, al-Sisi said Xi's visit, which comes upon the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, will greatly boost the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

Egypt is willing to connect its own development plans with the Belt and Road Initiative and expand infrastructure cooperation with China under the framework of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, he said, while calling for more Chinese investment in his country.

The Egyptian president thanked Xi for the invitation to the G20 Hangzhou summit as a guest of honor, and expressed his country's appreciation of China always being fair and just on Middle Eastern issues.

Describing China as a traditional partner of the Arab and African nations, he said his country will help deepen the friendship between the Arab world and China, and work more closely with China within the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Following their talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on jointly implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.

Also at the signing ceremony, the two sides inked a number of other cooperation agreements covering such areas as electricity, space, infrastructure, trade, energy, fiance, culture, media, technology and climate change.

Xi arrived in Cairo on Wednesday, 16 years after his last trip to the Arab country, which now looks forward to taking a ride on the train of development powered by the world's second largest economy.

Before traveling to Egypt, the Chinese leader visited Saudi Arabia, the first leg of his three-nation Middle East tour, which will also take him to Iran. Endi