Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the Asia-Europe cross-border transportation project at a video link event in Astana on Thursday.

The project not only benefits China and Kazakhstan, but also brings benefits and more cooperation opportunities for other countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said.

Xi, together with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, heard progress reports from the China COSCO shipping corporation and China Railway Corporation on the development of a logistics terminal jointly built by China and Kazakhstan in Lianyungang, eastern China, as well as the Khorgos-East Gate Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Kazakhstan. 

With an annual handling capacity of 410,000 containers, the Lianyungang logistics terminal mainly runs cross-boundary trans-shipment and warehouse businesses.

Xi also expressed his hope that the Asia-Europe cross-border transportation project can play a model rule for other projects in the initiative.