"Today we are gathering at Xi'an, the eastern terminus of the ancient Silk Road in China, to endorse the University Alliance of the New Silk Road(UANSR) on the basis of friendship and equality in an attempt to contribute to the harmonious development of the human civilization and openness and cooperation in higher education."

On the afternoon of May 22, at the opening ceremony of Educational Cooperation and Exchanges Fair between Countries on Silk Road, which was sponsored by Shaanxi Provincial People's Government and organized by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department and 21 universities including XJTU, nearly 100 universities from 22 countries and regions gathered at Xi'an and witnessed the announcement of Xi’an Declaration, vocally recognizing the creation of UANSR. This marked the official establishment of UANSR.

UANSR is a non-governmental and non-profitable organization aimed at openness and international cooperation in higher education. UANSR adopts the theme of building a platform in higher education cooperation and promoting regional openness and development and vows to step up exchanges and collaboration among universities from countries and regions along the Silk Road in institutional exchanges, talent training, joint research, cultural communication, policy studies and medical service etc, enhance understanding and friendship between the young people, foster quality and all-round talents with international visions, and facilitate the economic growth of countries on the New Silk Road Economic Belt and the Eurasian region.

Against the backdrop of One Belt and One Road strategy by the Chinese central government, XJTU initiated the New Silk Road Academic Belt seeing the collaborative development and further integration in the global higher education community, and made a global call in January 2015 for creating the UANSR together with the domestic and foreign prestigious universities.

Till now, nearly 100 universities from 22 countries and regions, including Harbin Institute of Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Nazarbayev University, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, I.Arabaev Kyrgyz State University, Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transport and Architecture, CentraleSupelec, Politecnico di Milano, University of Liverpool, National University of Sciences and Technology (Pakistan), National University of Singapore, Pusan National University, Chiang Mai University and Tampere University of Technology etc, have participated into UANSR.

XJTU President read Xi’an Declaration and the attending officials and important guests unveiled the UANSR logo. The Vice Chairman of the Agricultural Committee of the Russian State Duma, the Scientific Counselor Zamir Ahmed Awan of the Embassy of Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Beijing, delegates from the British Council of the British Embassy in Beijing, and Group of Eight Australia and approximately 200 presidents and participants from universities of 19 countries and regions witnessed the opening of UANSR.

At the opening ceremony of UANSR, the demonstration video and the theme song On One Road of UANSR were officially released. After the ceremony, the First Forum for Presidents of UANSR was held. Participants discussed around the topics of promoting higher education collaboration and advancing regional openness and development, and talent training and research collaboration in the UANSR framework to identify the future development in higher education, exchange ideas, explore opportunities and share accomplishments.