Indeed, President Donald Trump included its Warsaw summit on the itinerary of his visit to Europe in 2017. Their poorly connected energy and transport infrastructure reflects their history, in particular their separation from Western Europe by the Iron Curtain during the long decades of the Cold War. Officially launched in 2016 by Croatia and Poland, the 3SI was enthusiastically endorsed by the EU’s strategic partner, the US. You are a rival. In Kazakhstan, he outlined a vision of restoring overland trade routes from … It’s a stinging diplomatic setback for Xi.” Even the lure of access to China’s coronavirus vaccines failed to impress. around the world. A new infrastructure connectivity initiative in Central Europe is the latest stage for a geopolitical contest. The ancient Silk Road was a historical network of trade routes stretching from China to Europe. And they didn’t even have to make the effort of travelling to the summit – it was held on video link. Lowy Institute, Świnoujście, Poland, on the Baltic Sea (Getty Images). The incoming chair, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, nevertheless noted that infrastructure also has security implications. It is not yet clear how such projects with Chinese involvement may be factored into the 3SI, or whether they will be kept separate, which appears more likely. So what would you call the 17 + 1 minus six? But rather than seeing themselves as competitors in the race for infrastructure, 12 countries have united in recent years under the “Three Seas Initiative”, and are looking to boost connectivity for energy security, the digital economy and transportation. And while China is a formidable presence in Europe, the snub by the leaders of Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is just one of many indicators of a growing European wariness of Beijing. It’s Xi’s primary pathway for driving his colossal Belt and Road infrastructure juggernaut, also known as the “new silk road”, across Europe’s poor periphery and into its wealthy core. The Interpreter features in-depth analysis & expert commentary on the latest international The outright loser across all three pillars of the 3SI, energy, transport and tech, appears to be Russia, which will simply become less relevant to the economies of Central Europe. international events from experts at the Lowy Institute and 26 Oct 2020 15:30, The other Arab diplomatic talks with Israel, Preparing for when climate change drives people from their homes, Economic diplomacy brief: Foreign policy split, ASEAN links and Japan commerce 60 years on, Democracy won't be the winner in Hong Kong election. A new poll by the British Foreign Policy Group finds that 79 per cent of people named China a potential security threat, just behind Russia. Or in Germany when Chinese diplomats urged government officials to heap public praise on China. Embarrassing no-shows at China’s summit are a sign Europe is charting a new course. A note direct from our foreign correspondents about what’s making headlines around the world. It’s Xi’s primary pathway for driving his colossal Belt and Road infrastructure juggernaut, also known as the “new silk road”, across Europe’s poor periphery and into its wealthy core. Indeed, the focus of the 3SI to date has been on new south-north gas pipeline infrastructure, with plans to link the Adriatic island of Krk in Croatia to Świnoujście in Poland and Klaipėda, Lithuania, on the Baltic Sea. “If 2019 was the year when Europeans began having serious doubts about Beijing’s geopolitical intentions, 2020 may go down in history as the moment they turned against China in defiance,” wrote Andreas Kluth, former editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global. “Because China, by trying to capitalise on the pandemic with a stunningly unsophisticated propaganda campaign, inadvertently showed Europeans its cynicism,” he wrote for Bloomberg. At the end of the day, some healthy competition is good news for a region long overlooked for infrastructure development. Indeed, the EU has been discussing for several years greater coordination of transport infrastructure through the EU-China Connectivity Platform. Not only is its economy seven times the size of all the European members put together, it also brings a sack of cash and promises of huge economic benefits each year. And across the channel, a former part of the EU, Britain, too is hardening its stance against the Chinese Communist Party’s policies. When the cash begins to flow, it will helpfully leverage a commercially focused Investment Fund established by 3SI members themselves, which Poland kicked off with a contribution of €200 million. Some members are critical of China’s conduct in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. 03:06 Indonesia is taking inspiration from China to alleviate poverty. The EU was a little more circumspect at first, although it has come around to the significance of the initiative, which covers one third of the EU in area and includes about 100 million of the EU’s 445 million inhaibitants. This is indeed doubtlessly a motivation. Copied. Lowy Institute. Six European leaders snubbed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent summit. The Belt and Road Initiative, reminiscent of the Silk Road, is a massive infrastructure project that would stretch from East Asia to Europe. A $US750 million ($953 million) loan to build a Belt and Road highway in tiny Montenegro is being blamed for the county’s national debt blowout to 80 per cent of GDP. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here. Peter Hartcher is political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Almost eight years have passed, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) still remains a mystery, raising much global furor. Now that the US has become an exporter of oil and gas, it is keen to sell energy supplies and technology to Central Europe. The pact is being described as the EU and Japan's riposte to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A number of Hungarian experts interviewed for this research identified risks that both China and the US will seek to exert influence over the 3SI, including skewing projects towards their own economic interests, and potentially placing conditions on finance that may not appeal to recipients. It was also notable how many times speakers referred to the region’s “partners” – the EU, Germany and the US. While China has no interest (or capability) to export energy to Central Europe, it does have substantial interests in two other pillars of the 3SI, transportation infrastructure and the digitalisation agenda. Lowy Institute, © Copyright 2021 Little of that promise has yet been delivered, however, with Chinese investment in Europe overwhelmingly flowing to the larger, more advanced economies such as Germany. London is now banning Huawei and demanding UN inspectors be given access to China’s Xinjiang province. Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, said that “even the most fundamental research cannot just ignore geopolitical implications because co-operation and interdependence can be weaponised and is being weaponised as we speak”. ... China to Europe. Meanwhile, the EU remains polarised around political values that often divide along the lines of whether Chinese infrastructure finance is welcomed or feared. Member states such as Hungary will be keen to keep their options open, including drawing support from the EU and the 3SI as well as, when appropriate, China’s BRI. And the Chinese Communist Party’s media has hailed the 17 + 1 as a “pioneering feat of great power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics”. The language at the Summit shifted to overt geopolitics when it came time to discuss digital infrastructure. As The Wall Street Journal reported it, first “Merkel demurred with a compliment for Mr Xi, saying the language showed Europe recognised China’s growing strength and influence”. Moscow has been an early partner of China, and Russia and China now have altogether 150 common projects including natural gas pipelines and the Polar Silk Road. The initiative was introduced by Xi during his 2013 visit to Kazakhstan. Bulgaria has a framework agreement with China to build four motorways and a tunnel. That agreement is yet to be ratified by the European Parliament, and it’s meeting resistance. The name connects the nations located between the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Seas. China ’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (一带一路) is a strategy initiated by the People’s Republic of China that seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth. A quest to modernise dilapidated infrastructure in Central Europe has quickly transformed into a geopolitical contest. If the 3SI can deliver greater south-north road and energy infrastructure, this will also benefit both the US and China, providing them with new access points to trade and invest in a part of Europe with untapped potential. Six European leaders snubbed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent summit.Credit:AP. The central and eastern European leaders have felt increasingly let down by Beijing’s failure to deliver. Six European leaders snubbed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent summit. Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country was “dissatisfied” with the speed of China’s market opening to farm produce. A notable feature of the Central European member states of the EU, all of which joined in the last two decades, is that they tend to take much more conservative and nationalist positions than their more liberal and cosmopolitan counterparts in Western Europe.