GUANGZHOU, March 6-- China Southern Airlines, the country's largest carrier by fleet size, will open a number of new routes connecting the southern city of Guangzhou with cities in southeast Asia, Europe and Africa, it announced on Friday.

The airline will open a route linking Guangzhou with Nairobi, capital of Kenya, on Aug. 5. It also plans to open routes connecting Guangzhou with Rome in Italy, Sabah of Malaysia, Vientiane of Laos and Krabi of Thailand by the end of this year, it said.

Most of the cities are hubs within the proposed networks of Asian trade infrastructure known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the "Belt and Road" initiatives aim to connect the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic.