Yakunin in Shanghai—Integrate the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Trans-Eurasian Belt

On May 23, President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, speaking at the opening of the 10th Shanghai Forum said: “One of the priorities of Russian-Chinese cooperation is the implementation of a full-scale mechanism for dialogue to unify the Eurasian economic integration process and develop the Silk Road Economic Belt.”

According to rzd.ru, the website of Russian Railways, Yakunin said that, under the conditions of the continuing economic instability, the primary objectives include the need to promote and maintain regional economic cooperation, the expansion of knowledge, and exchanging experience between East and West. The basis of such cooperation should be the joint implementation of major infrastructure, industrial, and energy projects, he said.

“In this light, we see a unique opportunity to integrate the Russian megaproject of the Trans-Eurasian Belt RAZVITIE (TEBR) and the One Belt, One Road initiative of our Chinese partners,” he said. “It is not just about the integration of transport infrastructure and synchronization projects, but, much more importantly, the complete unification of formats and Eurasian cooperation mechanisms and the general accumulation of resources in order to achieve global goals,” said Yakunin.

On the TEBR project, Yakunin said: “We are making significant efforts to implement the idea of reconstructing the Trans-Korean Railway; in 2014, the universal transshipment terminal at the port of Rajin was launched with a capacity of 5 million tons; at the same time, trial deliveries of Russian coal were sent through South Korea to China. Our cooperation with China and other Asia-Pacific countries has reached unprecedented proportions,” said Yakunin.

He referenced the joint statements by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on May 8 this year, on deepening the comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction and promoting mutually beneficial cooperation, as well as on cooperation in the construction of the Eurasian Economic Union and Silk Road Economic Belt.

He spoke of development corridors, calling them “Network multimodal infrastructure: “rail, road, energy, water transport, and information — as the basis of this belt, including the construction of new scientific research, design, and industrial centers and cities with a large number of new jobs, which in turn become a source of advanced industrialization, according to rzd.ru.