Opinions & Interviews

URUMQI, 26 April (BelTA) – Belarus should become a key partner of Xinjiang soon, BelTA learned from Wu Guangrong, Deputy Head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government.

The official underlined that XUAR knows about Belarus’ strategic importance in the region very well. According to Wu Guangrong, the visit of China President Xi Jinping to Minsk in May 2015 and his negotiations with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko have contributed a lot to stronger comprehensive Belarusian-Chinese partnership, including partnership between Belarus and Xinjiang Province. “The top-level meetings have helped restore tighter and more effective contacts between the two countries,” Wu Guangrong was convinced.

The Chinese side believes that the project to create the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone is particularly important. Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, takes a close interest in the project. Delegations from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have visited Belarus many times for the sake of discussing opportunities and prospects of mutually beneficial ties. “The China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone is one of the largest projects in Belarus. It is of interest for XUAR businessmen, too. They have been to the China-Belarus industrial park and have thought about investing in it,” said the Deputy Head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region government.

Xinjiang Province plays a special role in the Silk Road Economic Belt project. The XUAR Foreign Affairs Office and the government of this autonomous region of China as a whole welcome Belarus’ participation in the implementation of the initiative.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is located in China’s northwest and accounts for one sixth of the country’s territory. The Great Silk Road crossed the area in the distant past. Several centuries later the Silk Road idea will be revived to become a powerful uniting platform for large-scale international cooperation.

It is not accidental that the China-Eurasia Expo is organized in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The expo represents a most important platform for top-level dialogue between China and Eurasian countries and a platform for building the Silk Road Economic Belt, stressed the Chinese official. The expo has opened a new page in the history of social and economic development of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.