China to work with S.Asian nations to advance high-quality B&R cooperation: Zhao Lijian.

BEIJING -- China is committed to high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with South Asian countries for common development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.

"China stands ready to work with South Asian countries to advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and implementation of the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, and achieve common development and progress with all countries in South Asia," he said during his regular briefing.

He informed that China's trade with South Asian countries nearly doubled compared with a decade ago and totaled $187.5 billion in 2021, up by over $50 billion than the pre-COVID number in 2019.

Zhao Lijian said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Port City Colombo project and the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka and other connectivity cooperation projects were all making steady progress. Trade between China and India in the first nine months this year reached $103.6 billion, he added.

He said that the cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and South Asian countries continued to expand, adding, "China's Yunnan province alone has received nearly 2,000 international students from South Asia."

Regarding 6th China-South Asia Expo which successfully held online-plus-offline formatin Kunming, Yunnan province, he said that President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the expo...