‘BRI fulfils UN Charter spirit’

NEW YORK: There is a fulfilment of the United Nations (UN) Charter spirit in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), said a long-time member of the Schiller Institute, a Germany-based political and economic think tank.

The UN Charter affirms the equal rights of all nations, no matter big or small, said Richard A Black, the Schiller Institute's representative at the United Nations. The BRI is an example of the way in which a big nation like China can cooperate with “nations across Southeast Asia, South America, Africa, and treat them as equal partners, because the process is win-win,” Black told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

Black also sees the BRI as the great up-lifter of nations out of poverty in the 21st century while the Article 55 of UN Charter outlines that the “conditions of stability and well-being” among nations demand “higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development.”