On May 11, 2021, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the Fifth Silk Road International Exposition and the Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province via video link.

Wang Yi said that with the theme of "Interconnection, Contribution and Shared Benefits", this Silk Road International Exposition aims to promote the joint development of China's eastern, central and western regions, accelerate the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. China welcomes all friends, both old and new, to attend the meeting to discuss ways of win-win cooperation and jointly build a path of joint development.

Wang Yi said that since President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China has signed cooperation documents with 140 countries and 31 international organizations, and jointly carried out a large number of practical cooperation projects. The Belt and Road cooperation keeps moving forward along the direction of high-quality development. Since 2020, in the face of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partners including Central Asian countries have watched and helped each other to overcome the difficulties. Trade exchanges have maintained growth, investment cooperation has continued to deepen, and mechanisms and platforms have been improved. The Belt and Road cooperation has moved forward against the trend and made a series of hard-won new progress and achievements. With our joint efforts, the Belt and Road is being developed into a model of cooperation for meeting challenges through unity, a model of health for protecting people's safety and well-being, a model of recovery for restoring economic and social activity, and a model of growth for unlocking development potential.

Wang Yi said that President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021, setting new goals for high-quality joint development of the Belt and Road, and pointed out a clearer direction for joint development of the Belt and Road under the new situation. At present, all countries are facing the arduous task of fighting the pandemic, stabilizing the economy, and safeguarding people's livelihood. It is even more necessary to work together to overcome the difficulties, unswervingly deepen Belt and Road cooperation, and promote the early recovery and growth of the world economy. Wang Yi put forward four propositions in this regard:

The first is to deepen public health cooperation in an all-around way to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. BRI partners should strengthen unity, carry out information sharing and joint prevention and control, and strengthen international cooperation in vaccine research, production and distribution to realize vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.

The second is to focus on enhancing connectivity to consolidate the foundation for higher-level development. BRI partners should accelerate the improvement of "fast tracks" for personnel exchanges and "green lanes" for goods transportation, strengthen the hard connectivity of infrastructure in railways, highways, ports and other fields, promote the soft connectivity of rules and standards, and deepen cooperation in digital connectivity to foster a new pattern of all-round connectivity for integrated development.

The third is to adhere to mutual beneficial and win-win cooperation and build a higher-quality economic and trade cooperation platform. BRI partners should firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, promote the construction of free trade zones, build an open world economy, and accelerate cooperation in emerging areas such as cross-border e-commerce and cloud exhibitions to continue to raise the quality and level of economic and trade cooperation.

The fourth is to focus on green development and create model projects for sustainable development. BRI partners should work together to seek a harmonious coexistence between human and Nature, strengthen cooperation in the fields of green infrastructure, green energy, and green finance, create more pragmatic cooperation results, and make more contributions to sustainable development.

Wang Yi emphasized that this year marks the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan and also the beginning of the new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. China will speed up the fostering of a new development paradigm with the domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other, so as to provide stronger impetus, greater space and better path for the joint construction of the Belt and Road. China's super-large-scale market potential will be further released, creating more demand and bringing more opportunities for the world. As the starting point of the ancient Silk Road and an important node of the Belt and Road, Shaanxi is deeply integrated into the joint construction of the Belt and Road and has become an important window for China to open up to the outside world in an all-round way. Friends from all parties are welcome to fully grasp the new opportunities of Shaanxi's opening up and cooperation and China's deepening of reform and opening-up, discuss cooperation, seek common development, and create a bright future for mutual benefit and win-win cooperation.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister of Slovakia (the guest of honor) Richard Sulik, and foreign ministers to attend the 2nd China+Central Asia Foreign Ministers' Meeting in China, including Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, and Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, attended and addressed the opening ceremony respectively via video link. The foreign guests spoke highly of the fruits of the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and looked forward to deepening pragmatic cooperation with China in various fields under the framework of the BRI, strengthening international anti-pandemic cooperation, and promoting the early recovery of the regional and world economy.

Wang Yi and the foreign ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan jointly held an online opening ceremony for the Central Asia Pavilion of the Fifth Silk Road International Exposition via video link and visited the pavilions of the Exposition online.