"The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not a policy tool solely in the hands of China, but, on the contrary, an open-ended project shaped by all participants," said Greek Ambassador to China Georgios Iliopoulos at the 9th World Peace Forum (WPF) held in Beijing on Sunday.

With the goal of continuing the high-quality development of the Belt and Road, ambassadors and experts from Belt and Road countries were brought together to shed light on how to forge closer partnerships for health cooperation, green development, and post-pandemic economic recovery at a panel of the WPF.

Iliopoulos expressed his hope to strengthen China-Greek cooperation in fields such as e-commerce, tourism, finance and banking, energy and the environment. "We are ready to work with China to adopt binding standards and pre-project environmental assessments for any green BRI investment or green finance initiative."  

Iliopoulos stressed that facing the ongoing global challenge of COVID-19, the BRI, when implemented optimally and equitably, can assist tremendously in reigniting the economy. He added that "Greece is actively looking forward to forging closer and stronger ties with China, with new synergies and partnerships."

Pakistani Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque extoled the BRI as a beacon of hope amid the post-pandemic economic recovery. He noted that the initiative has significantly contributed to stabilizing supply chains along the route, and enhanced economic resilience by creating jobs and promoting entrepreneurship and innovation.

Haque also underscored the necessity to make the COVID-19 vaccines a global public good and ensure their availability to developing countries.

Sri Lanka's Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona reviewed the leapfrog development of Asia over the past several decades, and highlighted China's victory in eliminating absolute poverty and efficiency in epidemic prevention and control. He also stated that he believes the BRI will open up "another exciting option to achieve prosperity" for Asia.

Organized by Tsinghua University in partnership with the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, the WPF is a non-governmental seminar focusing on international security. 

This year's forum was held with the theme "International Security Cooperation in the Post-pandemic Era: Upholding and Practicing Multilateralism." The event was attended both online and offline by diplomats, former senior officials and scholars from more than 30 countries. They focused on topics such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the global economic recovery, global governance and artificial intelligence.

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