Rosen Plevneliev: BRI brings prosperity, peace and win-win for the world

“I am a very strong advocate ambassador of the Belt and Road Initiative.” During an exclusive interview with China.org.cn, former President of the Republic of Bulgaria, H.E Rosen Plevneliev, said that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the “16+1” Initiative under its background will bring win-win situation to every country.

Former President of the Republic of Bulgaria, H.E Rosen Plevneliev

China.org.cn: In your opinion, what opportunities and challenges will the Belt and Road Initiative bring to the East-Central Europe’s development? 

Rosen Plevneliev: I‘m very proud to be one of the first heads of state who came on a special mission here to Beijing back in 2014, invited by President Xi Jinping. President told me about the Chinese dream, about the Belt and Road Initiative, and about the future. I learned a lot and we came together a very long and successful way.

The Belt and Road Initiative – is an initiative by the President Xi Jinping and China – today integrates hundreds of countries on the planet. The Belt and Road Initiative is not just the Chinese dream about a peaceful and prosperous planet, but it's our common dream about a planet that is safe, prosperous and clean for the future.

We are also extremely happy to recognize that a couple of years after being initiated, the Belt and Road Initiative is a very big success story. We have been welcoming Chinese investments and are so proud that companies like Huawei, Bright Food and many others have very successful operations in my country.

The Belt and Road Initiative is about bringing countries, bringing people, bringing cultures, bringing business together, so that all together in a win-win situation we will prosper in the future.

Of course it is an amazing opportunity for all of us and we are all very passionate. As a Bulgarian president I am a very strong advocate ambassador of the Belt and Road Initiative. Because it brings prosperity, it brings corporation, it brings peace and makes all of us dream together.

Of course, some countries are still not believing in the project, some others believe that the Belt and Road Initiative is just about Chinese investments in other regions and helping solve the internal problems of China. I truly believe this is not the case. It is not just because I was so proud to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang – not just once but many times as the Bulgarian leader – but it is because the results in my country and in southeast Europe, the “16+1” Initiative, which is one of the initiatives on the Belt and Road Initiative, and some others show that the project works. Today on the Balkans, we have come together. It is the Belt and Road Initiative and the “16+1” Initiative that bring all of us together.

So those two initiatives bring peace, cooperation, and hope. That is what Chinese are doing for all of us. We are very grateful, very proud. We are a trusted friend and partner. We are sure that the Belt and Road Initiative and the “16+1” Initiative will flourish. They will bring good results and there will be win-win for everyone.

China.org.cn: Over the past 30 years China has raised almost 800 million people above the poverty line. What are your observations on China’s achievements in poverty reduction and what kind of experiences can other countries learn from China’s successful poverty reduction experience?

Rosen Plevneliev: During my meetings with President Xi Jinping, with Premier Li Keqiang, with the minister of foreign affairs and with many other leaders of this great nation, they were so proud to tell me about this amazing success of China and they have every reason to be so proud. China has given an unprecedented example to the planet, to all of us. Many countries in the world face poverty and many such countries do not solve in a sustainable way the problem of poverty. China is the opposite example. China has raised 800 million people out of poverty. They have been given hope. They have been given a future. They have been given a new horizon. And China has done it in a remarkable, unique way; China has done it in a sustainable way, in a wise way. So China is the symbol of wisdom, of a long term sustainable approach. Those 800 million people here in China were educated. They were given a hand to integrate themselves into the 21st century with new technologies and with new industries. So China is an amazing example. We hope all the other countries in the world will learn from that lesson and will do it.   

What can we learn from China? It is a very simple thing that if we want to lift people from poverty, if you want to give them horizon and hope. The only way to do so is by educating them, by bringing them into the 21st century, to the industries, to the professions, to the jobs, and to the new possibilities and opportunities in the 21st century. It comes as no surprise to me when I see how China’s science and technology develops, how Chinese companies, how we see today, that for example, the fastest supercomputer on the planet is made in China, how the first quantum telecommunications standard was developed in China. It is more proof of wisdom. It was not just lifting people out of poverty. It was about educating them. It was about bringing innovation, bringing jobs in the new industries of the future, so that China could dream big and become very big. China is very strong in technology, in education. Today, China is preparing an army of well-educated young people.

China.org.cn: How do you see China's role in the changing global scenario?

Rosen Plevneliev: When I was the acting Head of State of Bulgaria, I talk to everybody who is anybody among the world leaders. Every year I was at the United Nations. I was at all the European Asian forums. I have listened to hundreds of speeches by the Chinese leadership. I was there when they acted and when they shared their vision, their dream and their solutions for the planet. China is constructive. China is friendly. China is open-minded. China is leading into the 21st century.

In the European Union, we were so devastated when the American President Donald Trump decided to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement. The Paris Agreement on climate change was an agreement helping us to have a cleaner and a better planet for our children. We are very hopeful and very grateful that China is stepping in, that China is doing more, and that China is leading. That is wonderful because we all believe that to have a clean and a safe planet is what we need to do today.

China also plays an extremely important international role in building up institutions of global order. China plays a very constructive role in United Nations. Wherever we see Chinese leadership and Chinese foreign policy and diplomacy, it is linked to building up, helping, coming together, bringing institutions into the 21st century and working for rules, working for cooperation and working for joint understanding. China is doing that in a very strong and very remarkable way.

The bank that was created, the Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank, is another very big success for China. It is in order to create the instrument for a better world, for a more connected world, for a more modern world.

So China is not just giving a hand. China is working hard. China is bringing ideas. China is bringing solutions. It is acting so that we all see results. And those results are in the interests of billions of people on the planet. No matter whether countries are rich or poor, strong or weak, everyone can be winning and part of the win-win cooperation. That is what China believes; that is what China is doing under the global scene. Because of that, more and more countries are coming round to the Chinese approach of having a win-win, fair and friendly approach to everyone. Because only together can we make our planet cleaner and safer. Thank you, China!

（Planning: Wang Donghai; Host: Liu Mengya; Editing: Liu Mengya, Yeerken; Cameraman: Guo Junkui.China.org.cn, China Development Gateway, The Emerging Markets Institute of Beijing Normal University co-produced ）