The Republic of Belarus officially opened a consulate in Chongqing on Thursday, its third in China after Guangzhou and Shanghai. It is the 12th foreign consulate in Chongqing.

The jurisdiction of the new consulate includes Chongqing municipality and the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei and Yunnan.

Li Bo, vice-mayor of Chongqing, said that in recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Belarus featuring mutual trust and win-win cooperation has been constantly strengthened.

In the context of China-Belarus friendship, all-around exchanges and cooperation between the two have proceeded with vigor and brought fruitful outcomes in cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative, underpinned by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe freight trains).

Li highly noted the cooperation between Chongqing and Belarus in frequent high-level reciprocal visits, rapidly growing economic activity and trade, diverse cultural and people-to-people exchanges and fruitful subnational interactions.

Yuri Senko, ambassador to China for Belarus, said he hoped that the official opening of the third consulate in China - which is salutes the 29th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Belarus and China, will add some motion and content to the commercial, economic, investment and humanitarian cooperation between Belarus and Chongqing.