Xi inaugurates Laos rail link

Flagship project connects Southeast Asian nation with China's networks

President Xi Jinping and his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith jointly inaugurated on Friday the China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative, as both sides pledged to enable the line to usher in more benefits for the two nations and people in the region.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Thongloun, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and president of Laos, via video link from Beijing.

The two leaders then witnessed the opening of the railway that connects Kunming in Yunnan province with the Lao capital Vientiane, a flagship project for bilateral friendship that connects the landlocked Southeast Asian nation with China's railway networks and enhances Laos' access to global markets.