JAKARTA, Indonesia — Chinese Premier Li Qiang took a test flight Wednesday on Southeast Asia’s initially high-speed train, which links 2 Indonesian cities as part of China’s Belt and Road facilities effort.
Li is checkingout Jakarta for 2 days of talks with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and other nations.
The $7.3 billion rail task, moneyed mostly by China, links Jakarta and Bandung, the greatly inhabited capital of West Java province. It is to start industrial operations on Oct. 1 and will cut travel time inbetween the 2 cities from the present 3 hours to about 40 minutes.
Li rode the train from Halim station in eastern Jakarta to the next station in West Java’s Karawang city, a 40-kilometer (25-mile) range that took about 11 minutes. He was accompanied by Indonesian authorities consistingof the collaborating minister for maritime and financialinvestment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
“This is clear evidence of modern-day, high-quality cooperation inbetween the 2 nations,” Pandjaitan stated.
Li then returned on the verysame train to Halim for the East Asia Summit in Jakarta, where he is goingto conferences with Asian and Western lead