Xi Jinping to host third belt and road summit in Beijing next week
- Conference will be a day shorter than the last one, with no mention of a leaders’ round-table event held previously
- A select list of leaders has been invited, sources say, with Russian President Vladimir Putin among those attending
The foreign ministry on Wednesday said the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation – bringing together representatives of at least 130 countries and 30 global organisations – would be held from October 17 to 18. The forum was last held in 2019.
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But a round-table event held previously is not likely to be on this year’s line-up and Beijing has invited only a select list of leaders to the forum, diplomatic sources told the Post.
Sources told the Post that some leaders who have met Xi since China reopened its borders following three years of Covid-19 closure had not received invitations to the forum.
But they said there were exceptions, including leaders of strategic partners in Southeast Asia and Africa such as Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who chaired last month’s Asean summit, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.