2 belt 2 road
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is here to stay.
On Friday, Beijing laid out its vision for the next 10 years of the initiative, which was launched in 2013.
- Beijing released a similar 10-year outlook for the BRI in 2015.
Beijing foresees four "new fields for cooperation," including:
- Green development – a theme that didn't appear in the 2015 version
- The digital economy – including digital infrastructure interconnectivity
- Innovation – including themes like cooperation in R&D, AI governance, and tech transfer
- Health – from info-sharing on infectious diseases to medical research collaboration
This is what really caught our eye: A brand new section on "risk prevention" and "security guarantees."
- In it, Beijing calls upon "co-building countries" to work with China to "jointly improve and refine security measures" and "strengthen the safety of projects and personnel involved in...BRI."
Get smart: Some BRI projects are in notoriously dangerous regions, and countries may welcome extra security support.
- That said, this new language won't help with assuaging Western concerns that China is looking to extend its police or military presence abroad.
Get smarter: As Beijing grows increasingly confident in the BRI's appeal in the developing world, it cares less and less about BRI optics in Western countries.
sources