Thai expert commends principles of cooperation, integration

BANGKOK - The Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, offers new development methods to other countries based on China's experience of development in the past 40 years, a Thai expert told Xinhua recently.

General Surasit Thanadtang, the director of the Thai-Chinese Strategic Research Center, National Research Council of Thailand, told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday that the BRI, especially its five cooperation priorities, namely policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and relationship of culture and people, points out a new, or alternative development method for countries participating in BRI cooperation.

"Since the 1900s, the world followed the Western method of development, modernization is defined by Western standards, while now the BRI, based on China's development experience, shows us another way," Surasit said.