Chinese president Xi visits Serbia to improve east European cooperation

World Today

Chinese president Xi visits Serbia to improve east European cooperation

President Xi Jinping will be the first Chinese president to visit Serbia in more than 30 years.

Serbia has borders with eight countries including Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Macedonia. Its unique geography provides a backbone for China’s cooperation with central and eastern European countries.

CCTV’s Gavin Blackburn has more.

Serbia became China’s first strategic partner in 2009.

Both countries are working closely to integrate China’s Belt and Road Initiative with Serbia’s re-industrialization strategy.

They signed a memorandum to tap potential on cooperation in energy, finance, telecommunications, and agriculture.

“China is the fourth largest source of imports. China now has a lot of infrastructure projects in Serbia like bridges, expressways and power stations,” Dragon Trailovic of University of Belgrade said.

Meanwhile, China and Serbia are all peace-loving nations. Last year, Serbia’s army took part in China’s military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory over fascism.