STORY: BRI contributes to global humanitarian work: ICRC president
DATELINE: Sept. 3, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:27
LOCATION: GENEVA, Switzerland
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE (English): MIRJANA SPOLJARIC, ICRC president
2. Various of ICRC

STORYLINE:

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) contributes to global humanitarian work as it helps improve local infrastructure and supports the provision of essential services in more than 60 countries and regions.

SOUNDBITE (English): MIRJANA SPOLJARIC, ICRC president
"The Belt and Road Initiative is a development initiative.
The Belt and Road Initiative can become complementary in the future and how we can inform your side to the human humanitarian needs of the people affected by conflict, and how they can be best served in the future and how they can be served in the future in a sustainable manner. Because we of course, also wanted our humanitarian interventions to have a sustainable impact and are not only short-term because we need to assure the people who work and live in protracted situations of conflict, that they can continue benefiting from essential services such as health, water and other such public goods.There is a thin line between development assistance and humanitarian assistance in such situations and this is where we have to work in complementarity with the development actors.So what you see in many places is conflict on top of poverty and poverty that is reinforced by the absence of rain. Very often conflict happens in communities where 80% depend on agriculture. So what you see is a vicious circle between poverty, violence, and climate change, and they are constantly reinforcing themselves.We hope that China becomes an even more important contributor to global humanitarian assistance, and we look forward to building the next phase of our valued relationship, and ultimately serve humanitarian objectives both at global, regional, but also at local levels."

Mirjana Spoljaric said she will start soon her first official visit to China as ICRC President. She will participate in the award ceremony of the Florence Nightingale medals and a series of high-level activities. 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Geneva, Switzerland.
(XHTV)