The Strategic Significance of the Belt and Road Initiative
The "Belt and Road" is a road of win-win cooperation that promotes common development and common prosperity, and a road of peace and friendship that enhances understanding and trust and strengthens all-round exchanges. The Chinese government proposes to uphold the concepts of peaceful cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, mutual benefit and win-win results, promote practical cooperation in an all-round way, and build a community of interests, destiny and responsibility featuring political mutual trust, economic integration and cultural tolerance.
The "Belt and Road" runs through the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, with the active East Asian economic circle at one end, the developed European economic circle at the other end, and the vast hinterland countries in the middle with huge economic development potential.
The Silk Road Economic Belt mainly connects China via Central Asia, Russia to Europe (the Baltic Sea); China via Central Asia, West Asia to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean; China to Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Indian Ocean. The key direction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is from China's coastal ports through the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, extending to Europe; from China's coastal ports through the South China Sea to the South Pacific.
