Road to Everywhere? What is China's Belt and Road Initiative now making an entry into Afghanistan?

China has finally entered Afghanistan – through its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to Bloomberg, the agreement was reached in a meeting between China’s foreign minister Qin Gang and Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday. “The two sides agreed to continue their humanitarian and economic assistance for the Afghan people and enhance development cooperation in Afghanistan, including through extension of CPEC to Afghanistan,” according to a joint statement issued by Pakistan’s foreign ministry following the meeting. But what is the BRI? And what is its future? Let’s take a closer look: What is it? The BRI is an ambitious infrastructure project that aims to connect Asia with Africa and Europe.

Xi Jinping, who launched it in 2013, at the time spoke of a ‘common destiny’ for prosperity.

Some have referred to it as the new ‘Silk Road’ – which was established by the Han Dynasty. [caption id=“attachment_12565272” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Graphic: Pranay Bhardwaj[/caption] According to the European Bank, the BRI comprises a land route and a sea route. The former links China to south east Asia, south Asia, Central Asia, Russia and Europe by land and the latter connects China’s coastal regions to south east and south Asia, the South Pacific, West Asia, Eastern Africa, and Europe. The initiative defines five major priorities:

• Policy coordination
• Infrastructure connectivity
• Unimpeded trade
• Financial integration
• Connecting people.

    Around 150 countries and 32 international organisations have signed up for BRI or showed interest in joining the BRI, as per East Asia Forum. According to the Wall Street Journal, China has already spent $1 trillion on the BRI. CFR quoted some experts as saying that Beijing could wind up spending as much as $8 trillion on the BRI. “China has had a fair amount of success in redrawing trade maps around the world, in ways that put China at the center and not the US or Europe,” says David Sacks, an expert on US-China relations, told the website. What is its future? According to the Silk Road Briefing website, China by investing in Afghanistan is looking to protect its sizeable investment in Pakistan. Beijing thinks Afghanistan is the missing piece in the puzzle linking West, Central and South Asia. Afghanistan’s inclusion in the BRI promises China better access to Central Asia, according to the website. “The idea is to engage Afghanistan in economic activity that has already linked China and Pakistan together,” a Pakistani official earlier told the Financial Times.

Some worry the BRI gives China too much power.

A 2021 study found that over 100 debt financing agreements between Beijing and 22 creditor nations – known as the ‘Paris Club’ – have clauses that restrict restructuring the deal. Overall debt to China has surpassed 20 per cent of some countries’ GDP, as per CFR’s Belt and Road Tracker. Pakistan ultimately needed a bailout from the International Monetary Fund after its budget ballooned to unsustainable proportions. [caption id=“attachment_12565222” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A map depicting the Belt and Road initiative’s route. Image Credits: beltroad-initiative.com[/caption] Meanwhile, Ghana and Zambia BRI loans partly led to sovereign default.

But the truth is that most nations have little options.

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“If loans that you know are charging an exorbitant interest rate are the only way [to get infrastructure financing], you still have to weigh that trade off and probably proceed with that,” Sacks added. According to The Hindu, this has been labelled a ‘debt trap’ by the West. Research shows such countries often approach Beijing after being turned down for loans elsewhere. However, with several countries unable to pay back billions of dollars in loans and witnessing numerous projects stalled, China is now working to revamp the project, according to the Wall Street Journal. New Delhi for its part has opposed the Belt and Road Initiative mainly because the project passes through parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). In August, India had lodged protests against  China and Pakistan inviting other countries to join projects related to CPEC, calling the move “illegal” and “unacceptable.” “We have seen reports on encouraging a proposed participation of third countries in so-called CPEC projects. Any such actions by any party directly infringe on India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs, had said in a statement, as per Deutsche Welle (DW). Italy unlikely to remain in BRI Italy is highly unlikely to renew its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) deal with China, which expires early next year, but needs time to discuss the issue with Beijing, a senior government official said last week. The official, who has knowledge of internal discussions over the matter, said a formal decision would not be made ahead of this month’s Group of Seven summit in Japan, adding that it was a highly sensitive topic. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office declined to comment. Italy in 2019 became the first and so far only G7 nation to join the hugely ambitious BRI programme, which critics said would enable China to gain get control of sensitive technologies and vital infrastructure. The then prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, hoped the deal would give a lift to Italy’s underperforming economy, but over the past four years it has seen little benefit, with exports to China totalling 16.4 billion euros ($18.1 billion) last year from 13 billion euros in 2019. By contrast, Chinese exports to Italy rose to 57.5 billion from 31.7 billion over the same period, according to Italian data. Italy’s main euro zone trading partners France and Germany exported significantly more to China last year, despite not being part of the BRI. The government official said Rome would use this lack of economic development as an argument for not renewing the deal. The pact expires in March 2024 and will be automatically renewed unless either side informs the other that they are pulling out, giving at least three months’ written warning. In an interview with Reuters last year, before she won power in a September election, Meloni made clear she disapproved of Conte’s decision. “There is no political will on my part to favour Chinese expansion into Italy or Europe,” she said. Meloni, who heads a conservative, nationalist coalition, has been keen to burnish her credentials as a committed pro-NATO, pro-Atlantic leader, catching the eyes of Western allies with robust, vocal support for Ukraine. But she has been careful not to give offence to China, and government officials said Rome did not want to cause a diplomatic rupture. China had to remain a partner, but Italy could not get into a situation where it was over-reliant on Beijing in any key sector, as had happened with Russia and its energy supplies, a second official said. Meloni met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali last November and accepted an invitation to visit China, but a date has not yet been fixed. Meloni has also not yet visited Washington and the government official said she did not want to travel to Beijing without having first been received by president Joe Biden. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.