Leaders from emerging economies are in China for the “Belt and Road” summit 

Leaders from emerging market nations are gathering in Beijing for a meeting that will commemorate the Belt and Road Initiative’s 10th anniversary.

Following the landings of Chilean President Gabriel Boric and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Sunday, more than a dozen leaders from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East were flying into Beijing on Monday. On Tuesday, more people will arrive.

Chinese corporations have developed ports, roads, trains, power plants, and other infrastructure all over the world as part of President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to promote trade and economic growth.

However, several of the weaker nations have also been heavily indebted as a result of the enormous Chinese development loans that funded the projects.

The third Belt and Road Forum’s main sessions are on Wednesday, so there will likely be a rush of diplomatic activity on Tuesday and Wednesday. According to MTI, the official news agency of Hungary, Orbán met with Xi and Premier Li Qiang. Additionally, the forums were held in 2017 and 2019.

Despite the nation’s existing huge public debt, Kenyan President William Ruto will be requesting further loans for stalled road projects and an easing of the repayment of a Chinese loan for a railway project that has not proven to be financially viable.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and leaders of the Afghan Taliban administration are anticipated to attend the event.

Putin brushed off the notion that China is vying for influence in an area that Russia has long regarded as its backyard through its Belt and Road initiatives in Central Asia.

“Our own ideas on the development of the Eurasian Economic Union, for example, on the construction of a Greater Eurasia, fully coincide with the Chinese ideas proposed within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative,” he told CCTV, according to a transcript on the Kremlin website.

Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of Ethiopia, Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe, Denis Sassou Nguesso, the president of the Republic of Congo, James Marape, and Hun Manet, the prime minister of Cambodia, were among the world leaders that came on Monday.