Silk Road Economic Belt: China’s President Xi Jinping today pledged to accelerate plans to resurrect the old Silk Road trading route and to create both a Silk Road Economic Belt and a Maritime Silk Road both of which he claimed would help strengthen ties between China, the rest of Asia and Europe. The founding of the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank (announced at a meeting of 21 Asian countries in Beijing last month and due to start operating next year) was an important step towards the realisation of the goal, he said. Newskaz