ULAN BATOR — State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Aug 24 met with the governors of five western provinces of Mongolia on how to strengthen local-level exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

The five provinces — Uvs, Khovd, Bayan-Ulgii, Zavkhan and Govi-Altai — are adjacent to China. Their cooperation with the Chinese side, especially Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in Western China, has deepened in recent years with remarkable results, Wang said.

The comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Mongolia has entered the fast lane, and the two sides are accelerating the alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Mongolia’s Prairie Road development initiative, he said.

Wang said the five provinces can seize the opportunities and deepen cooperation with China, especially Xinjiang, which is at the core of the Belt and Road construction and a key area for China’s development strategy in the western region.

China will continue to encourage Chinese companies to invest in the five provinces to improve the livelihood of the people there so that the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership can bring more and better benefits to them, he said.

The governors expressed their readiness to strengthen local-level exchanges and cooperation and said the five provinces admire China’s development achievements and support BRI, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013.

They said they hope to participate in the Belt and Road construction and deepen their cooperation with the Chinese side in agriculture, animal husbandry, the processing industry, tourism, border trade, cultural exchanges and infrastructure construction.