A China-Europe freight train with 45 compartments of anti-epidemic supplies leaves the Xinzhu Railway Station in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Aug. 12, 2020, to head for Italy's Milan.  (Photo by Yuan Jingzhi/Xinhua)

Freight trains between China and the EU have played an important role amid the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to maintain smooth goods transportation in the Eurasian continent, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The pandemic has crippled global shipping and air cargo transportation, but the freight train service between China and the EU has actually seen an increase in its business volume, with newly opened routes, said FM spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press conference on Wednesday.

"Secure and efficient, the freight train service has stabilized logistics and ensured supplies of goods in the Eurasian continent, and it has reduced the pandemic's impact on the China-EU industrial and supply chain," Zhao said.

The number of freight trains between China and the EU increased 36 percent year-on-year to 5,122 in the first half of this year, transporting 461,000 containers.

The freight train, as a project under the Belt and Road Initiative, involves multilateral cooperation, said Zhao.