Iran vows full throttle dedication to China's Silk Road

Iran says it is fully on board to help revive Silk Road, an ancient trade route for a thousand years which China plans to expand between Asia, Africa and Europe.

Leaders from 29 countries and ministers and top officials from many others will gather in Beijing for a two-day summit starting on Sunday to map out development of the "Belt and Road" initiative.

Delegates are about to discuss the plan which involves hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming decades, underpinned by building ports, railways and power links across Asia and on to Europe.

Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayyebnia arrived in the Chinese capital on Saturday to represent the country at the forum, IRNA news agency reported.

“Iran will employ all its power, cooperation and effort for better implementation and completion of this initiative because it believes that the plan will play an important role in the global development and relations among countries,” he said.

Chinese government officials say more than 50 memorandums of understanding, plans, cooperation letters and cooperation projects in transportation, energy and communications will be signed during the meeting.

EA