China to Host Third Belt and Road Forum in October

11 Sep 2023

What’s new: China will host the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing this October, the foreign ministry announced Thursday, marking 10 years of the global infrastructure development scheme known as the BRI.

This year’s forum returns after a four-year hiatus, with the previous event in 2019 attended by leaders from at least 40 countries and international organizations. The first forum took place in May 2017.

Neither the specific date or countries expected to attend the event were revealed, though foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Thursday that Beijing was in “communication with all parties concerned about the preparation for the forum” and will release relevant information at a later time.

The background: First proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, has established more than 3,000 cooperation projects and mobilized nearly $1 trillion of investment over the past decade, according to Wang.

More than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations have signed cooperation documents with China under the BRI.