Belt & Road Initiative to open new stage of cooperation: Putin

A customer watches TV as Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a televised event at a shop in Moscow, Russia, on June 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Oleg Brusnikin)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he hopes the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative will start a new stage of cooperation in Eurasia and beyond.

This initiative is unique and successful, said Putin when answering a question raised by Xinhua after his annual "direct line" call-in session.

"The main thing that we must do is to unite our efforts within the frameworks of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Belt and Road Initiative," said Putin.

The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013 consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. It aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

The EAEU comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with an aim to encourage regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services and people within the union.

Putin expressed confidence that the two development plans will be connected as Russia and China "have many overlapping goals and complementary opportunities."

"I have no doubt that we will work together and this work will be effective and beneficial for the Chinese and Russian people as well as the global economy," he said.