The One Belt-One Road initiative may shift the global balance of power once and for all

Adam Garrie

World leaders, including Russia’s President Putin have been attending meetings in Beijing as part of the ‘One Belt–One Road’ initiatives launched by China in 2013.

The ambitious project aims to set up transport and trade corridors that will help connect East-Asia, Eurasia and Europe, using both rail and maritime links.

China’s goals represent the most ambitious project to re-define the logistical and financial nature of world-trade since the creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995.

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the meetings saying,

“Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit.
The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilisation”.

Russia is keenly interested in using this project to facilitate energy trade between Russia and its eastern partners including China, Mongolia, Japan and Korea.

President Putin called One Belt-One Road, named for China’s ancient silk road, a “Civilization project for the future”.

He went on to state,

“We cannot resolve modern challenges by using old approaches. We need new ideas. We need to abandon all stereotypes.
We should set a role model for the global community of how we can work together, develop together, based on equality and respect for national sovereignty based on international law and the United Nations principles”.

Turkey’s President Erdogan meanwhile said that the project would “pave the way in a new era”.

The projects logistics are immense and any project of this size will not come to fruition in a day. This is especially true as the countries leading the project seek cooperation and consent. Intimation and domination, hallmarks of western economic imperialism, are off the table.

President Xi made this abundantly clear. The Chinese President said,

“We have no intentions to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries via bringing our social system and the development model, or by imposing our will (on other states)”.

However, the political implications are clear. While the leaders of China, Russia, India, Turkey, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia,Vietnam, Myanmar and others gathered in Beijing, the leaders of the United States and Europe’s largest economies were notably absent. Instead, these countries sent minor officials.          More