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16/10/2023 07:00
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched a decade ago, has achieved numerous results, although it is usually portrayed in a negative light in the Western media and presented as a kind of neo-colonisation. Objective articles on the achievements and successes of the BRI in Eurasia have been published several times, but the current issue of our magazine is dedicated specifically to this topic. But why is it important for Eurasia to focus on the Belt and Road Initiative?
China has grown economically and politically stronger by the 21st century, and thanks to this, it was able to launch the New Silk Road Economic Cooperation in 2013, which has been developing steadily for ten years. The aim of the initiative is to create Eurasian connectivity that will benefit not only the maritime powers but also the mainland countries.
Over the last hundred years, we have seen several Russian, Japanese or EU attempts at creating similar Eurasian connectivity, but the economic or political strength of the respective countries/regions was not quite sufficient to undertake an initiative of this scale. After all, according to Zbigniew Brzeziński, former chief national security adviser to the US president, the main geopolitical space for the United States is Eurasia, and the United States' global pre-eminence depends directly on its ability to maintain its dominance throughout Eurasia. This can only be countered by strong economic and political backing. It can be said, therefore, that the BRI's ten years of steady development are a testament to China's economic and political strength.
In recent years, we have heard from Chinese leaders on many platforms that the world needs a harmonious, multipolar world order that should not be governed by a single country or small community. Asian countries reject hegemony and constantly advocate peaceful dialogue and cooperation.
The Belt and Road Initiative could be an appropriate world order alternative but, above all, for non-Western civilisations or non-aligned countries - who make up several times the Western community of 800 million. In international politics, we are increasingly seeing that the Chinese initiative is better received in the world than the Western approach: more and more countries are joining the BRI, and there are also more and more countries that do not want to take sides but want to maintain good relations with both Western and Eastern countries. This thinking is supported by China, but rejected by the West, which is pushing for bloc-building.
Over the last ten years, the BRI has made great progress, but it will take many years or decades to see whether or not it will really be the basis of a new world order because the transformation of the world order is not a year or two away. In any case, it can be concluded that the Belt and Road Initiative can provide a suitable alternative to the framework of a new multipolar world order.
Cover graphic by Alexandra Érsek-Csanádi
Eurasia magazine helps the reader to step out of this Western information bubble and present the changes in global trends and economy, historical patterns and the real face of Asian countries so that we can prepare for the future and position ourselves and our countries accordingly.
It seems that the 'non-Western' countries, which have grown economically and politically stronger by the 21st century, have had enough of the Western dominance of the last 500 years of the Atlantic era.