China's BRI promotes peace, development, win-win cooperation: Cambodian diplomat, expert

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promotes peace and development, does not oppose any other country, and supports international order, a Cambodian diplomat and an expert said on Wednesday.

"Cambodia supports the BRI because it promotes the three fundamental principles that I just mention," Un Kheang, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said at the third Cambodia-China Think Tank High-Level Forum in Beijing.

"BRI promotes win-win cooperation and equal partnership, considering other countries' desire for independence, sovereignty, and cooperation with other partners with equality, mutual respect, and inclusiveness," he added.

Kheang said more specifically, BRI projects aligned with Cambodia's development strategy wherein it contributed to the development of Cambodia's physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and airports.

Currently, BRI projects align with Cambodia's development strategy in areas of human capital development, e-commerce and digital trade, logistics, and supply chain, he added.

The BRI, a reference to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was initiated by China in 2013 to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

Speaking at the forum, Kin Phea, director general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, a think tank under the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said under the BRI framework, China has played a significant role in supporting Cambodia's development efforts and is expected to continue doing so in the future.

He said the BRI would give a boost to Cambodia's vision of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income nation by 2050.

Touching on Cambodia-China ties, Phea said the bilateral relationship is rooted in the five principles of peaceful coexistence, namely mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful co-existence.

"Cambodia-China's special and unbreakable ties are a "unique role model" of interstate relations that can be replicated both regionally and globally," he said.

In February, both sides agreed to develop a "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework with six priority areas, including political cooperation, production capacity and quality, agriculture, energy, security, and people-to-people exchanges.

"The Diamond Hexagon cooperation framework ushered in a new era of building a high-quality, high-level, and high-standard China-Cambodia community with a shared future, to carry forward the most treasured ironclad friendship through coming generations," he said.