Silk Road e-commerce drives BRI high-quality development

Silk Road e-commerce has evolved into a pivotal engine driving high-quality Belt and Road cooperation over the past decade and a key practice for inclusive and equitable global e-commerce development, said an official from the Ministry of Commerce at a press conference on Monday.

Over the past decade, China has built an extensive Silk Road e-commerce cooperation network across the globe. It has signed e-commerce cooperation memorandums with 38 countries across five continents and deepened multilateral regional digital economic cooperation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN, and China-Central Asia mechanisms.

To facilitate two-way trade, China has supported platforms and local authorities in launching nearly 200 online and offline national exhibition pavilions, creating an efficient e-commerce channel for tens of thousands of premium specialty products from partner countries to access the vast Chinese market.

Meanwhile, more than 60 overseas direct procurement and supply bases have been established by e-commerce platforms, fueling the integrated development of cross-border logistics, mobile payment, cloud services and other supporting industrial chains.

"The 'Silk Road e-commerce benefits the world' campaign, launched for the first time in 2025, rolled out 42 cooperation measures and garnered participation from over 100 countries. The initiative has helped more than 80,000 small and medium-sized merchants from partner countries go digital and expand global sales, generating over 100,000 direct jobs worldwide," said Wang Pengfei, head of the Department of Electronic Commerce and Informatization of the Ministry of Commerce.

Silk Road e-commerce drives BRI high-quality development

Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir and Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir on Tuesday condemned a social media post by U.S. President Donald Trump showing Iceland and several neighboring countries covered by the U.S. flag, saying the post should be taken seriously.

Frostadottir told a government press conference Tuesday morning that the message conveyed by the image was "absurd" and described it as an insult to Icelanders, Canadians and Greenlanders.

"There is nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states," she said.

Gunnarsdottir said Iceland had sent a clear message to the United States that the post was "completely unacceptable."

She said Iceland is a sovereign and independent state responsible for its own destiny, adding that no other country could determine how Iceland handles its independence or sovereignty.

"If this is supposed to be a joke, then it is a bad joke," Gunnarsdottir said.

Gunnarsdottir summoned U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Billy Long for a meeting on Monday after Trump published the image on his social media platform Truth Social. She said Iceland's position had been explicitly conveyed to the ambassador. Long took up his post as U.S. ambassador to Iceland last month.

Trump posted a map on Monday showing the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Central America covered by the U.S. flag.

Iceland condemns Trump map showing country under US flag