The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a Chinese foreign policy project that includes two prongs:
Silk Road Economic Belt
A land-based network of railways, highways, energy pipelines, and border crossings that connects China with Europe, Russia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia
21st Century Maritime Silk Road
A maritime network that connects China's coastal regions to the South Pacific, Middle East, Eastern Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, all the way to Europe.
The BRI also includes efforts to strengthen people-to-people ties, hard infrastructure, and soft infrastructure. The initiative's goals are to promote economic growth and development through improved infrastructure, which can facilitate smoother trade and generate economic prosperity.
The BRI has expanded to Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, broadening China's economic and political influence. As of October 2023, the plan touches 151 countries with a combined gross domestic product of $41 trillion and some 5.1 billion people.
The BRI has five major priorities: policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and connecting people.
The BRI includes infrastructure projects such as:
- Roads and highways
- Trains
- Energy infrastructure (power stations, wind farms, oil pipelines, etc.)
- Ports
- Extractive industry infrastructure (mines, logging)
- Information technology infrastructure
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) includes six international economic corridors and a trans-continental Silk Road Economic Belt:
- China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC)
- New Eurasian Land Bridge (NELB)
- China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor (CCWAEC)
- China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor (CICPEC)
- China-Pakistan economic corridor
- Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar