EAEU members already invested $24 bln in Belt and Road Initiative, funding still growing - Putin

MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) - Chinese President Xi Jinping's the Belt and Road Initiative was launched in proper time, it already involves 147 countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"When we talk about President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative - I believe, it was some ten years ago when he formulated the idea - I think it was very timely and is developing well, because the focal point of this idea is an attempt to unite the capabilities of many countries to achieve common development goals," Putin said in an interview with China Media Corporation published on the Kremlin website.

Some 147 countries, two-thirds of the world's population, are taking part in the initiative one way or another, Putin said. "So I think this is already a success, this is a good, correct and technologically organized initiative that is developing," he said.

"Yes, we see that some people consider it an attempt by the People's Republic of China to put someone under its thumb, but we see otherwise, we just see desire for cooperation," Putin said.

Russia's idea of the Eurasian Economic Union, including the Greater Eurasia, fully coincides with China' Belt and Road Initiative, Putin said.

Russia welcomes the initiative of Xi Jinping, "we are working together, we are ready and we will continue to work together," he said.

Speaking of the Belt and Road Forum he is planning to attend in China, Putin said it was planned to sign contracts on the forum's sidelines. He said that EAEU members have already invested $24 billion in the Belt and Road Initiative, and the amount of investments has been growing alongside the new projects.

"They are not only beneficial to the countries that receive some loans under this initiative. They are also beneficial to the People's Republic of China, because it also receives products from the implementation of these projects and gets conditions for better and greater development. All this is done on the basis of mutual benefit," Putin said.

"We have joint projects. Perhaps it is too early to dwell upon it, but I am sure that contracts will be signed; new contacts will be established between economic actors; heads of governments, various ministries and departments cooperating directly will meet. I am not going through all of it now," he said.

Each Russian proposal runs over several pages, Putin said. "Each project may represent something we will work on for more than a year, perhaps a decade. Thus I have the best expectations, including from contacts with my colleagues," he said.

The main advantage of China's initiative is that "nobody imposes anything on anybody in the framework of this work. Everything is done within the framework of finding not only acceptable solutions, but such projects and such ways of achieving a common goal that are acceptable to all," Putin said.

"This is what makes China today, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, unique in building relations with others: no one imposes anything on anyone; no one forces anything on anyone, but only gives them opportunity. And, as I said, if there are difficulties, compromises are sought and always found," he said.

"In my view, this is what distinguishes the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by the Chinese President from many others that countries with a heavy colonial legacy are trying to implement in the world," Putin said.