My friends at The Dialogue wrote this interesting post about China’s Belt and Road Initiative. (BRI)
At this point in time, Panama is the only Latin American country to have signed one of China’s over seventy Belt and Road Cooperation Agreements with individual countries, or to be featured on China’s BRI web site.
Last week’s China-CELAC Ministerial Forum resulted in some noteworthy announcements from China, but the region’s formal inclusion in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was not one of them.
Chinese officials welcomed Latin America’s participation in the Initiative, generating considerable buzz about the region’s newfound place on the Belt and Road. However, Chinese officials stopped short of officially including Latin America and the Caribbean on their BRI map.
The language employed by Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the Forum varied only slightly from already established narratives. Chinese officials referred to the region as a “natural extension” of the Maritime Silk Road, while adding that the region is an “indispensable participant” in the construction of the BRI.
Although this language is suggestive of BRI-LAC linkages, no steps were taken by Wang Yi to formalize LAC participation, or, more importantly, to extend financing from the Silk Road Fund, a $40 billion investment fund established by China to make its Belt and Road ambitions a reality.