Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday said that the Belt and Road Initiative should benefit all around the world and deliver common development by following the established international norms.

Addressing a roundtable meeting of the 37 heads of states and governments who attended the 2nd Belt and Road Forum, which would close on Saturday, Xi again stressed that the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative would focus on common development of all the participating countries and their people.

“We must implement the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to see that all voices are heard, all reached their full potential and all stand to benefit,” the Chinese President said.

The BRI must be open, clean and green and follow high standards, people centred sustainable approach, he said, adding that it should be aligned to the United Nations’ sustainable development agenda.

Those attended the BRF meeting included Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and heads of several Asian, African and Latin American countries besides heads of the UN and the IMF. India and the US skipped the meeting.

India, which boycotted the first BRF meeting held in 2017 over its objections to the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, skipped its second edition for the same reasons.

India has also been airing its concerns over the BRI financing, saying that connectivity initiatives must follow principles of financial responsibility to avoid projects that would create unsustainable debt burden for communities.

China has clarified that less than 20 per cent of the CPEC projects are based on loans provided by it and rest of the 80 per cent ventures are either directly invested by Beijing or, used Chinese grants.

The BRI was launched by President Xi when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link southeast Asia, central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.

China is doling out huge sums of money for infrastructure projects in countries from Asia to Africa and Europe, enhancing its global influence.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the 2nd BRF on Friday, Xi allayed fears that China is using the BRI as a geopolitical tool to attain superpower status.”Everything should be done in a transparent way and we should have zero tolerance for corruption,” he said.

Xi said that China will not engage in beggar-thy-neighbour currency devaluation. China will continue to improve the exchange rate formation mechanism of its currency and keep the exchange rate generally stable on a reasonable and balanced level, he said.