In this beautiful golden October, we, practitioners in the language and culture community of China and the Belt and Road countries, gather in Beijing, the capital of China, for candid, friendly and in-depth exchanges under the theme of “Common Language, Shared Future”. We have decided unanimously to establish the Belt and Road Languages and Cultures Network and have agreed on the following:
We believe that since the proposal of the BRI, China and the BRI countries have significantly strengthened exchanges, and in the process of enhancing friendship they have generated collective efforts. This has further promoted the all-round expansion of international exchange and cooperation, bringing unprecedented opportunities to the field of language education and cultural exchange between China and other countries.
We have witnessed that over the past decade, exchanges and cooperation among language education and cultural organizations in the BRI countries have flourished, promoting the convergence, interaction and development of different civilizations.
We believe that as the BRI continues to deepen, the role of language and culture in promoting people-to-people connectivity, civilization development and social progress under the BRI framework will become increasingly prominent.
We believe that it will be effective for the high-quality development of the BRI by strengthening resource sharing and win-win cooperation among language education and cultural organizations, using language and culture development to promote connectivity and mutual cultural learning.
To this end we unanimously agree to take the following actions to express our confidence and determination in using language as a pathway and culture as a bridge to broadly support the brilliant outcomes of the BRI.
1. We will unite to build a Belt and Road language and culture community, fostering an atmosphere of equality, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and vitality in language and cultural cooperation.
2. We will establish a cross-cultural language service platform that enables countries to align their language policies, share industry information, initiate language projects and enhance cooperation and exchange in language and culture.
3. We will engage in in-depth research in the field of language and culture, establish translation cooperation mechanisms and launch international academic journals, so as to disseminate outstanding research outcomes and promote academic exchange and knowledge sharing.
4. We will organize academic forums on language education and culture to enhance the influence of the BRI. We will also collaborate in teacher training programs, jointly conducting training sessions for language teachers.
5. We will promote extensive, high-level and in-depth cultural exchanges to foster mutual understanding and friendship among the peoples of the countries involved in the BRI. We will establish the Belt and Road Language and Culture Hundred Flowers Garden Award to promote the common advancement of world civilizations through exchange and mutual learning.
6. We support the network in its development and growth through collective wisdom, dialogue and consultation. We advocate for a nonprofit, inclusive approach to expansion, welcoming the participation of more language education and cultural organizations.
Let us work together to build a language and culture development strategy that aligns with the Belt and Road Initiative, continuously achieving new successes in its high-quality development, and making greater contributions to the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity.
