'UN members should help to protect Silk Road from terrorists'

China, which is building multi- billion dollar Silk Road project abroad, wants UN member states to strengthen cooperation to effectively protect trans- boundary infrastructure from terror attacks, amid a series of terrorist strikes targeting such installations worldwide.
"China's Belt and Road Initiative(Silk Road) takes infrastructure interconnection as cooperation priority to support the countries along the Road to improve their infrastructure development, achieve mutually beneficial win-win cooperation and synchronise development to benefit all," China's permanent representative to UN Liu Jieyi said.
Speaking at a UNSC open debate on the protection of critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks, Liu said a series of terrorist attacks on infrastructure such as airports and mass transport stations have caused panics, and resulted in serious losses of lives and properties.

"The international community should pay attention to the above mentioned developments and work together to fight this phenomenon," Lu said.
The UNSC yesterday unanimously adopted Resolution 2341 (2017), calling upon member states to consider developing or further improving their strategies for reducing risks to critical infrastructure from terrorist attacks.
Liu said that so far over 100 countries and international organisations have joined the Belt and Road Initiative.

China hopes to strengthen cooperation in areas such as "intelligence sharing, risk assessment and joint law assessment through bilateral and multilateral channels" to effectively protect interconnection projects and trans- boundary infrastructure from terrorist attacks and to ensure the safety and security of the Belt and Road construction, Liu was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

"The United Nations and the Security Council should play a leading role in relevant international cooperation," he said, adding that "terrorism is the common enemy of mankind and whenever and wherever and in whatever forms it occurs, it must be countered resolutely".
China's ambitious Silk Road projects include the USD 46 billion economic corridor which goes through the Pakistan- occupied Kashmir over which India has raised objection.
Beijing is organising a massive summit conference on the OBOR in May for which world leaders have been invited.
In its resolution, the 15-member UNSC called for security protection to the infrastructure projects.

"The need to strengthen efforts to improve security and protection of particularly vulnerable targets, such as infrastructure and public places," Xinhua quoted a UN press release as saying.