China to hold next Belt and Road forum in 2019

South Korea’s delegation head Park Byeong-seung of the ruling Democratic Party said he had a short conversation with Kim Yong-jae, Pyongyang’s minister of external economic relations, at the Belt and Road forum.

Before this weekend’s summit, China’s Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui tried to reassure New Delhi that the initiative was only about economics.

Hua asserted that China has already made its position clear on the Kashmir issue over which the Indian side is concerned.

“They see an opportunity to fill the vacuum and take advantage of perceptions globally”, said Andrew Gilholm, director of analysis for North Asia at Control Risks Group, referring to changing perceptions of U.S. leadership in the Trump era. “In the coming five years, we will offer 2,500 short-term research visits to China for young foreign scientists, train 5,000 foreign scientists, engineers and managers, and set up 50 joint laboratories”.

“After this speech, I think the vision is much clearer now”, Poland’s Radek Pyffel, an Alternate Director of the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, told Reuters, referring to Xi’s opening speech.

Countries like India and the United States are sceptical of the project and view it as a geostrategic design.

“India and Japan’s deepening economic partnership has been prompted by a recognition of China’s efforts to enhance its influence by funding development projects in its neighborhood”, Darshana Baruah of Carnegie India wrote in a recent paper.

There’s speculation China Rail could be granted a contract to build a 22 kilometre stretch of highway and rail corridor from Whangarei to a port at Marsden Point in Northland as part of One Belt One Road.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn has published details from a leaked report, outlining China’s plans for Pakistan, all of which sounds rather concerning from an Indian vantage.

India is heavily dependent on its energy imports through sea route.

On the last day of the forum meeting, President Jinping underlined that 68 countries have signed the agreement of cooperation.

Xi’s Belt and Road development initiative focuses on connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily China and the rest of Eurasia.

According to the joint communique, national governments, local authorities and enterprises reached a number of cooperation agreements, policy measures and practical results in the lead-up to and during the forum.

The project – where Kenya is seeking partnership with the private sector to build a highway, an oil pipeline, a railway line and a sea port at Lamu connecting South Sudan and Ethiopia, – is created to link up with another corridor from West Africa.

The Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) is one of the planned corridors of this project.

Duterte was given the red carpet treatment on his arrival in Beijing, where he was welcomed by officials of the Chinese capital well as Chinese Counsellor He Rulong and Ambassador to the Philippine Zhao Jianhua, who were joined by Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta.

World leaders from 29 nations as well as 1500 delegates, investors, entrepreneurs, scholars and media from more than 100 countries attended the event.