WASHINGTON - The Belt and Road Initiative is a "valuable concept", said former US senior diplomat Charles W Freeman.

The BRI is "a means of developing commerce, increasing prosperity, reducing costs, making trade more efficient," Freeman said.

Freeman was the chief interpreter for then US President Richard Nixon during his 1972 maiden trip to China and served as assistant secretary of defense in the 1990s.

"I think it's very good. And I don't think the United States can influence it by standing outside and cursing it," Freeman said, adding that "we have to get inside and cooperate".