Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Sunday called for stronger China-Belarus cooperation to promote trade, investment and connectivity, urging joint efforts to build an open world economy.

Han made the remarks while addressing the Belarus session of the "Big Market for All: Export to China" initiative in Minsk.

He said China and Belarus have maintained enduring friendship and steadily deepened bilateral ties over the past three decades since the establishment of diplomatic relations. Han noted that the meeting between the two leaders in August last year charted a new course for bilateral relations and injected fresh momentum into cooperation across various fields.

Against the backdrop of profound changes in the global political and economic landscape, Han said countries are facing growing challenges in development and global free trade.

Describing Belarus as an important economic and trade partner in the Eurasian region, Han said China is willing to further strengthen policy coordination and industrial cooperation with Belarus, facilitate trade flows, expand bilateral trade, foster new forms of digital economy cooperation and improve the efficiency of China-Europe freight train services.

He said these efforts will create favorable conditions for the sustained growth of bilateral trade and contribute to building an open world economy.

Han also stressed that 2026 marks the first year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period and reaffirmed China's commitment to the basic national policy of opening-up. He said China will continue to share development opportunities with the rest of the world and pursue common development.

Launched last year, the "Big Market for All: Export to China" initiative aims to help trading partners expand access to the Chinese market, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, safeguard the multilateral trading system and free trade and inject positive momentum into global economic growth, Han said.

The Belarus event is the first overseas session of the initiative in 2026. More than 40 Chinese companies and over 200 Belarusian enterprises participated in business matchmaking activities, providing new channels for Belarusian products to enter the Chinese market.

Han welcomed Belarusian businesses to seize the opportunities offered by China's market and expand cooperation with China to achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.