Belt and Road five years on: Chinese President Xi Jinping's words of wisdom

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2013, Xi proposed the building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for short, in Kazakhstan and Indonesia respectively.

The BRI aims to connect about 80 countries across Asia, Africa and Europe to China, benefiting over four billion people by building infrastructure facilities and boosting financial and trade cooperation.

During the past five years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has spoken and written, on different occasions about this initiative, addressing concerns from the international community to make it better understood.

Here's a close look at Xi's quotes on this project.