Belt and Road Initiative Revisited

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as an open international cooperation and development mechanism, is adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to build connectivity and co-operation across six main economic corridors along Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road. The initiative to jointly build the Belt and Road, embracing the trend toward a multipolar world, economic globalization, cultural diversity, is designed to uphold the global free trade regime and the open world economy in the spirit of open regional cooperation. The initiative defines five major priorities encompassing policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity; unimpeded trade; financial integration and connecting people. The initiative and its core concepts have been written into documents from the United Nations, G20, APEC and other international and regional organizations. The “Belt and Road” construction is a long-term systematic project with far-reaching implications and an important platform for building a “community of responsibility”, a “community of interests” that shares weal and woe, and a “community of shared future ” for China, countries along the route and other countries in the world.