Belt and Road: The route to stability in the world
It’s a turbulent world we are living in, when there never comes a day without news on international conflicts, tragedies and war. Countries in conflict seem to fail in finding a solution to their issues, being constantly on the stage of war. Economies suffer and people flee to other countries in pursuit of a better place under the sun, thus adding to those countries’ population but at the same time creating new problems, like risks of high unemployment and migrants’ integration into society. All countries, no matter how far or close they are to each other, are interconnected and a chain break at one point will trigger a reaction in another. What the world needs now is something that can step up to adjust the broken chain. Under these circumstances, the Belt and Road(B&R) Initiative in 2013 came just in time.
The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, was proposed by China in 2013 with the aim of building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.Apart from obvious economic benefits to China and other countries on the B&R route, one of the main purposes of the initiative is spreading, protecting, popularizing and promoting the culture, to create a multicultural dialogue and to come to a better understanding of each other, thus making a big contribution to the world’s peace and stability.
Peace is born when countries and nations communicate and interact, when there is a strong economic and cultural dialogue between them. Peace-making initiatives like the Belt and Road tell the world that conflicts can be solved without using armor. No war is needed when there is no economic, social or political crisis in the countries. Unfortunately, nowadays, the world can’t boast stability. Central Asian countries are torn by the conflicts, African countries suffer from wars and poverty and Russia is going through economic crisis. All of these issues bring a certain danger to the successful implementing of the Belt and Road Initiative, but at the same time, it also brings opportunity, as the Chinese word for “crisis” (危机) means, opportunity by promoting the “soft power” to take a firm position in regulating global issues.
With the Belt and Road Initiative the participating countries can get a real chance for their nations to revive trade and improve their economic situation, as well as broaden their cultural horizons. China promises to invest in infrastructure, build high speed railways and offer free trade zones. In Russia, for example, there is a plan to construct the high-speed railway that would connect Beijing and Moscow, so that the delivery of goods would take less than three days instead of a whole week. Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan Republic, Russia, the place where I was born, is also a crucial part along the new high speed railway.
In a turbulent world, we need such an initiative that will promote peace, not war, is aimed at strengthening the global economy and uniting countries, advocating for cultural diversity and tolerance, helping needy nations and cooperating with the strong ones. When no one is weak, then there is no place for war. Let the Belt and Road Initiative connect the world and lead to a prosperous and sustainable future!
The author is a senior blogger with China Daily.
