Iran UN envoy: China's Silk Road plan promoting UN goals

Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Gholam Ali Khoshrou underlined that China's Silk Road initiative will greatly boost the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"The Initiative would also dramatically boost the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Khoshrou said.

"We are living in a world that is so interconnected, so we need this connectivity offered by the Belt and Road Initiative," the Iranian ambassador added.

Khoshrou reiterated the fact that Iran was a very important country on the ancient Silk Road and is also a very important country in the Belt and Road Initiative, and the country also takes an important strategic position by connecting the East to the West, linking Asia to Europe.

"The Belt and Road Initiative would help reduce tensions in the Middle East through economic development, economic cooperation and creating jobs," Khoshrou said highlighting poverty, underdevelopment, foreign intervention and other issues as major causes for tensions and turmoil in the Middle East.

The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held from May 14 to 15 in Beijing.

The “One Belt, One Road” project was introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2013 as a land-and-sea version of the fabled Silk Road trading route of the 16th to 18th centuries.

China says the project is open to everyone, but it has also identified 65 countries along the Belt and Road that, since the early stages of the proposal, it insisted will participate in the initiative (whether they’ve confirmed it themselves or not). Together, the 64 nations plus China account for 60 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of its GDP, according to the Hong Kong–based think tank Fung Business Intelligence.

China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that 29 heads of state will attend the forum. They’ll be among the summit’s 1,500 or so Chinese and foreign attendees.

EA