The two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing on May 14 and 15, attended by representatives of more than 100 countries and regions, including the heads of state or government of 29 countries, and the heads of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Vice Premier Kris Peeters represented Belgium at the Forum. Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his keynote speech that the Belt and Road Initiative “in line with the interests of all countries”as he offered at least CNY780 billion in extra funding for the ambitious plan.

He called for international cooperation to fund the projects and to combat protectionism along the new Silk Road routes. China’s Silk Road Fund would increase funding by CNY100 billion, Chinese banks would extend CNY300 billion in overseas capital, and the China Development Bank and Export and Import Bank of China would add CNY250 billion and CNY130 billion respectively in special loans to Belt and Road projects. President Xi said the Belt and Road Initiative was a right step in moving towards a future of “happiness, peace and harmony”. The idea was “not to open a new kitchen”, but to seek to strategically connect existing plans, including those of Russia, Turkey, Mongolia and Vietnam, the Chinese President said. The Belt and Road plan “would not repeat the old way of geopolitical games, but would seek cooperative win-win”, he added.

President Xi said the new Silk Road would be open to all, including Africa and the Americas, which are not on the traditional trading route. The Belt and Road Initiative – a plan Xi unveiled in 2013 to build infrastructure and expand trade across countries in Asia, Africa and Europe – has been welcomed by cash-starved emerging countries. Those countries are home to 60% of the world’s population and need more than USD26 trillion of infrastructure investment by 2030, according to Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates.

Attending the Forum were Russian President Vladimir Putin; European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen; Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte; Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy; Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras; and Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi also attended the Forum. North and South Korea were both represented, and their delegations held a brief meeting. The United States’ delegation was led by Matt Pottinger, Special Assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump and Senior Director for East Asia at the National Security Council (NSC). India, on the other hand, was represented only by local embassy staff and academics, reflecting New Delhi’s unease about the initiative. Leaders of only five of the EU’s 28 member states attended the Forum.
Jonathan Hillman, Director of the Reconnecting Asia Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the initiative was a double-edged sword. “It is broad and ambitious, but the practical implementation is very difficult, to get a lot of different countries to agree on anything that is game-changing”.