MOSCOW – The Belt and Road Initiative, which was announced by ChinesePresident Xi Jinping in 2013, mainly focuses on the Maritime Silk Route,which connects China and Europe; the land-based Silk Road Economic Beltdeals with Russia as well as countries in Central Asia and the Middle East.
Beijing may create more military bases across the world to protect itsinvestments in its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project, alsoknown as One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative, the Pentagon said in a reportto Congress on Chinese military and security developments.
With China currently having just one overseas military base in Djibouti,target locations could include the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and thewestern Pacific, according to the report.
“China’s advancement of projects such as the ‘One Belt, One Road’Initiative will probably drive military overseas basing through a perceivedneed to provide security for OBOR projects,” the document pointed out.
The document singled out China’s push to “establish additional militarybases in countries with which it has a longstanding friendly relationshipand similar strategic interests, such as Pakistan, and in which there is aprecedent for hosting foreign militaries”.
In March, Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the US White House’s nationalsecurity adviser urged the Italian government not to participate in China’sBRI, calling it a “vanity project”.
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Shortly after, however, Italy became the first major Western countryto support the BRI, which stipulates promoting investment in projects thatwould link dozens of countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe through thecreation of infrastructure networks similar in purpose to the ancient SilkRoad trading routes.
During a recent BRI Forum in Beijing, German Economy Minister PeterAltmaie, in turn, said that major EU countries, including Germany, France,Spain, and the UK, are ready to sign a memorandum of understanding on BRIas a group rather than as individual states.
As for the Pentagon report, it comes at a time of ongoing Indian-Pakistanitensions, which escalated after the 14 February Pulwama terrorist attackin which at least 40 Indian security personnel were killed.
Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based terrorist group, claimed responsibilityfor the Pulwama attack and New Delhi accused Islamabad of harbouring andsponsoring the Islamist terrorist outfit, a charge which Islamabad denies.
