Full coverage: Xi Visits Cambodia, Bangladesh, Attends BRICS summit

By Zhang Maorong, researcher with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations; cartoon drawing by Chi Ying

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Phnom Penh on Thursday to start his state visits to Cambodia and Bangladesh and attend the 8th summit meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Korea) countries.

The tour is of great significance to endorse ideas supported by the Group 20 Hangzhou Summit, seek to enhance periphery diplomacy and expand the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as to tout cooperation among BRICS countries and deepen South-South cooperation.

Cambodia and Bangladesh are close neighbors to China in Southeast Asia and South Asia, both enjoying a long tradition of friendship, as they would play important roles for the Belt and Road.

Xi’s visits would strengthen China-Cambodia friendship and upgrade China-Bangladesh ties to a new level. The tour would also bring a new vision for future cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and the docking of China-Cambodia and China-Bangladesh development strategies.

The BRICS Summit will be the second meeting of top leaders after their unofficial meeting during the G20 Hangzhou Summit last month.

Xi will put forward proposals to deepen cooperation and add Chinese confidence to BRICS countries along with Chinese momentum to South-South cooperation.

People are expecting to see an enlarged guiding spirit of China as witnessed in the G20 Hangzhou Summit.

A new model of “intimate, sincere, beneficial, inclusive” periphery diplomacy would leave a profound mark for Beijing’s process in global governance reform.