BEIJING (Reuters) -&nbsp;China&nbsp;said on Thursday that&nbsp;90&nbsp;countries&nbsp;have&nbsp;confirmed&nbsp;attendance&nbsp;for its&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;Initiative&nbsp;conference being held in October,
The third&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) will be held in Beijing in October, the foreign ministry has previously said, with 2023 marking the 10th anniversary of the&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;Initiative&nbsp;(BRI).
Several foreign leaders are expected to attend, including Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic&nbsp;and&nbsp;Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, state media reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also has a scheduled visit to&nbsp;China&nbsp;in October when the country hosts the One&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;One&nbsp;Road&nbsp;forum, Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said recently, according to Russia's state news agency TASS.
"We&nbsp;have&nbsp;received an invitation&nbsp;and&nbsp;plan to go to&nbsp;China," Ushakov said, according to a report from the Global Times.
China's foreign ministry said the country has signed&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;cooperation documents with more than 150&nbsp;countries&nbsp;and&nbsp;over 30 international organizations, according to Xinhua.
"Over the past decade,&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;cooperation has achieved fruitful outcomes," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin recently said at a press conference, adding that it has established more than 3,000 cooperation projects&nbsp;and&nbsp;galvanized nearly $1 trillion of investment, state media reported.
Critics see the ambitious&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;initiative&nbsp;- billed as recreating the ancient Silk&nbsp;Road&nbsp;to boost global trade infrastructure - as a tool for President Xi Jinping's&nbsp;China&nbsp;to spread its geopolitical&nbsp;and&nbsp;economic influence.
Debate in the West over economic dependence on&nbsp;China&nbsp;has cast a shadow over longer-term trade&nbsp;and&nbsp;investment relations with Beijing. Italy, the sole Group of Seven nation in&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road, said the decision by a previous government to join had been "atrocious".
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(Reportin by&nbsp;Andrew Hayley; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Alison Williams&nbsp;and&nbsp;Kim Coghill)

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China says 90 countries have confirmed attendance for Belt and Road Initiative