Thought Papers

Maj. Gen. Moni Chandi (Retd.)

Chief Strategic Officer, Synergia Foundation

China's Belt & Road Initiative

In October 2013, the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) President Xi Jinping, during official visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia, announced the re-naming of the ambitious OBOR (One Belt One Road) project to the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is the PRC Government’s development strategy; involving roads, railways and sea routes to improve connectivity and trade, from South East Asia to Europe and Africa. The PRC has signed BRI cooperative agreements with more than 70 countries and Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The 2nd BRI Forum was held in Beijing in April 2019. More than 100 countries participated, including Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt.