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China reveals US is open to cooperating on Belt and Road projects

THE US is willing to cooperate with Beijing on projects related to its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. The message was conveyed by US President Donald Trump to China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi during a meeting, China's Foreign Ministry revealed in a statement.

Engagement with Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road project to build new trade and investment links between Asia, Europe and Africa would mark a contrast to the Obama administration, which turned down the opportunity to be a founding member of the related Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), reported Bloomberg.

Mr Yang told Mr Trump in a White House meeting recently that China would be willing to work with the US on the initiative, the ministry said in the statement. The president responded that he would also be open to working together on related projects, according to the statement.

Mr Trump told Yang that he's happy with the positive progress made in relations since meeting President Xi and is looking forward to meeting him again in the Group of 20 nations summit in July in Hamburg, Germany, and visiting China within the year, according to the statement.

Support from the White House for Belt and Road would be "a boon for China-US relations," deputy director of the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, He Weiwen, was quoted as saying. "The Belt and Road projects are so big that Chinese companies can't do them alone. They need to find partners elsewhere, including the US."

US companies have already been deeply involved in the projects along the Belt and Road, and business leaders on both sides have been calling for cooperation in third countries, said Mr He.

The US Chamber of Commerce and the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a Beijing-based think tank, said in a joint statement that the two nations can engage in full cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative and through a number of other means including the AIIB, World Bank, and other multilateral investment and financing institutions.

In a related development, California Governor Jerry Brown told President Xi in a meeting in Beijing this month that the most populous state is willing to join the initiative and expand cooperation on green technology, innovation and trade, according to a statement from the governor's office and a report from Xinhua News Agency.