The belt and road initiative: ANew platform in EU-China cooperation?

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the perfect paradigm through which to understand China’s growing role in the international arena, in terms of both trade and international governance. This evolving process requires a constant effort to understand the causes and effects of the actions (and counter-actions) of influential international political players, such as, in addition to the aforementioned China, the European Union and the United States. This chapter therefore focuses on the impact of the BRI on the international order led by the West: Is it a threat or an opportunity? The authors, focusing mainly on the European Union, and trying to understand the ultimate purpose of a project such as the New Silk Road, provide some insights to maximize the benefits and minimize the disadvantages arising from the BRI, an unprecedented project whose effects, in both the short and long terms, have already had, and will have, an impact on the European institutions and its member states. The indolence or decisiveness put into practice in future policies undertaken at the European level can in fact make the difference between a positive and negative outcome resulting from the forthcoming relations with Beijing.