Xi's trip advances key economic corridors

Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid, right, holds a welcoming ceremony for visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Dhaka, Oct 14, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping has just concluded a trip to Cambodia, Bangladesh and India, during which he participated in the BRICS Summit in Goa, India, at the weekend.

From the perspective of geopolitics, this was an important diplomatic activity that deepened China's bilateral ties with the three countries, which are all important for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

It was also a trip that resulted in concrete achievements as China and Bangladesh agreed to deepen strategic partnership of cooperation and 31 cooperation agreements were signed with Cambodia, most of them in infrastructure construction and industry. These achievements are important for advancing the China－Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor, and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor. They are also the realization of China's latest efforts in carrying out the Belt and Road Initiative from the angle of bilateral partnerships and border-region cooperation.

In a China-Cambodia joint communiqué, the two sides agreed to accelerate the effective integration of Cambodia's Rectangular Strategy with China's Belt and Road Initiative. For this, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding regarding bilateral cooperation for the Belt and Road Initiative. This is the second bilateral cooperation agreement between China and a country in the Indochina Peninsula, after the one between China and Laos.

In Bangladesh, a series of bilateral cooperation agreements were signed on industrial cooperation, information communication, energy and electricity, diplomacy, disaster-prevention and control and climate change, among other things, within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xi also attended the launch ceremony of some important bilateral cooperation projects. Bangladesh is located where South Asia joins Southeast Asia, an important intersection in the Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road Initiative can be effectively integrated with Bangladesh's foreign-bound strategic cooperation, so as to create new opportunities for win-win cooperation between China and Bangladesh.