President Xi Jinping said in a letter that China is ready to work with other countries and regions to create a sound legal environment and a set of global economic and trade rules that are fair, reasonable, transparent and promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative to better benefit others.

The congratulatory letter to the China Forum on International Legal Cooperation was read out on Sunday by Wang Chen, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress, at the forum's opening ceremony in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Xi said development of the Belt and Road requires legal guarantees and expressed hope that the forum would strengthen exchanges, increase consensus and facilitate the development and improvement of legal systems so that the rule of law would play a strong role.

Sponsored by the China Law Society, the event was attended by around 400 representatives from China, 40 from other countries involved in the BRI and four from international organizations.

In his keynote speech, Wang, who is also president of the law society, said the Chinese government attaches great importance to the rule of law and that it would like to further expand legal cooperation with the rest of the world.

Cholendra Shumsher J.B. Rana, chief justice of Nepal, said the forum - themed "Deepening international legal cooperation: Making joint contributions to the Belt and Road Initiative" - will further deepen the exchanges and cooperation of legal fraternities around the world, consolidate legal consensus on prominent issues and further strengthen mutual learning among legal professionals.

"It will in turn contribute to the harmonization of legal frameworks to enable BRI projects and partnerships for mutual benefit and shared prosperity," Shumsher said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.