Chinese Strategy Towards Europe: The Belt and Road Initiative and 17  1 Strategy – What Does It Mean for the EU and Central and Eastern Europe?

STUDIES IN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, vol.24, no.2, pp.121-145, 2020 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Several projects like the Silk Road have been developed by different

countries in the post-1991 period, but there is only one that had a

tremendous global impact: the “One Belt One Road” (Belt and Road)

Initiative developed by China. This project was fi rst announced by the

Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Central Asia in 2013, and

has subsequently had a tremendous global, regional and national effect. The

Belt and Road Initiative not only covers almost the entire Asian continent,

but also a large geographical area that extends from East Africa to Europe.

Through this project China aims to promote common development and

welfare sharing among all countries along the Belt and Road routes, to

establish mutual political trust between China and these countries, to more

effectively connect transportation networks among regions and cities along

the routes, and to establish cultural contact between societies. Accordingly,

China wants to put its development process on a planned and solid basis by

increasing its global impact in the economic, political, and cultural fi elds.