Xi to attend opening ceremony of Belt and Road forum in May

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) and Wang Xiaotao (L), deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, attend a press conference on the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, capital of China, April 18, 2017. The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held from May 14 to 15 in Beijing and Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and host the round table summit of the leaders, Wang Yi said on Tuesday. At the invitation of Xi, 28 heads of state and government leaders will attend the forum. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held from May 14 to 15 in Beijing and Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and host the round table summit of the leaders, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday morning.

At the invitation of Xi, 28 heads of state and government leaders will attend the forum. They include Argentinean President Mauricio Macri, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Czech President Milos Zeman, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Swiss President Doris Leuthard, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Mongolian Prime Minister Jargaltulga Erdenebat, Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Wang said.