Belt and Road News Network

First Council Meeting Joint Statement

Beijing, China

April 23, 2019

The First Council Meeting of the Belt and Road News Network (hereinafter referred to as “BRNN”) was held in Beijing, the People's Republic of China, on April 23, 2019. Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the meeting. In the letter, he warmly congratulates on the holding this meeting and extends sincere welcome to all representatives of council members.

The BRNN council is composed of 40 mainstream media organizations from 25 countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Through discussions and interactions during the meeting, we reached broad consensus and issued a joint statement as follows:

1. In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the initiative of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (hereinafter referred to as the Belt and Road Initiative). The Belt and Road Initiative carries on the fine tradition of the ancient Silk Road and also advances it. It embodies a new model of multilateral cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative has provided new ideas, great opportunities and an essential platform for international cooperation, which is conducive to promote win-win development and mutual benefits. It will be instrumental in strengthening cultural and economic ties and people-to-people exchanges among all relevant countries.

2. The Belt and Road Initiative seeks to enhance trust, confidence, and understanding between peoples and countries involved. In this regard, media exchanges and cooperation is key to enhance people-to-people bonds.

As an essential media cooperation platform for the countries and regions along the routes, BRNN plays a unique role in pooling consensus and promoting exchanges. We agree to uphold the Silk Road spirit highlighting peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefits, to disseminate truthful, accurate, objective and impartial news and information to the whole world, and to play a constructive role in strengthening understanding, mutual trust, cooperation and exchange among people of various countries and regions.

3. The charter clarifies the nature, purpose and basic functions of the BRNN, stipulates the scope of work of the council and secretariat, and confirms members’ rights and obligations, and its operational mechanism. The Charter was passed at this council meeting.

4. Composed by renowned media organizations worldwide, the BRNN council will welcome new members during suitable occasions. The secretariat, established as a permanent office of BRNN, is locatedat the People's Daily (China).

5. BRNN aims to build platforms for shared information, exchanges, and cooperation, news dissemination and promotion of the connectivity of the countries along the Belt and Road. BRNN launched its website and an information aggregation and distribution mobile platform, which, on the basis of respecting and protecting news copyrights, enables its members to upload and share their news items, and facilitates their cooperation on news products in a more direct and convenient manner.

6. BRNN will put forward initiatives for more activities in terms of media dialogues, exchange of news products, media personnel and technology, including the Media Cooperation Forum on Belt and Road, the Silk Road International News Award, joint reporting trips, Journalists Workshop,and news archives and databases.

7. We believe BRNN will become an effective platform for media organizations to engage in dialogues and reinforce innovation and collaboration. With concerted efforts of all parties, the Belt and Road News Network will boost innovation and shared opportunity for win-win development, and retain its long-lasting vitality and vigor.

The council members include influential media organizations from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. They are: People's Daily (China), The Financial Express (Bangladesh), Belarus Today Publishing House (Belarus), Xinhua News Agency (China), China Media Group (China), Guangming Daily (China), Economic Daily (China), China Daily (China), China International Publishing Group (China), Science and Technology Daily (China), Workers' Daily (China), China Youth Daily (China), China Women's News (China), Farmers’ Daily (China), Legal Daily (China), China News Service(China), China Intercontinental Communication Center (China), Al-ahram Newspaper (Egypt), Ethiopian News Agency (Ethiopia), La Provence (France), The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), Kazinform International News Agency (Kazakhstan), Maekyung Media Group (Republic of Korea), Lao Press in Foreign Languages(Laos), Notimex (Mexico), Confederation of Mongolian Journalists (Mongolia), Democracy Today Newspaper (Myanmar), RNW Media (Netherlands), Thisday Newspaper (Nigeria), Jang Media Group and GEO Television Network (Pakistan), AgênciaLusa (Portugal),Russian News Agency TASS (Russia), Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia), Independent Media (South Africa), Agencia EFE(Spain), Alintibaha Daily Newspaper (Sudan), The Guardian Limited (Tanzania), Emirates News Agency (U.A.E), Associated Newspapers Ltd., DMGT (U.K) and Zambia Daily Mail (Zambia).