At the end of 2013, President Xi Jinping presented the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, later called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is a proposal to boost economic development through investment in infrastructure that favors international trade and exchange between participating countries. Those investments boost the economy of these countries, and the infrastructure improvement that results from them has lasting effects. Ten years ago, the world economy was still suffering the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis that had started in the United States.

Instead of welcoming the BRI and seeking ways to cooperate, the Group of Seven (G7) countries decided to contest it. The BRI is a uniquely Chinese initiative dedicated to bringing balance to what is currently a Western-dominated international order. In 2021, the G7 proposed the so-called "Build Back Better World (B3W)" initiative. B3W has not gained the support of developing countries, while the BRI has expanded geographically throughout Africa, expanded into Latin America, and acquired new branches such as the Polar Silk Road and the Health Silk Road. Moreover, the BRI's infrastructure began to focus not only on physical infrastructure (ports, airports, railways, etc.) but also on digital and technological infrastructures.

Unable to attract the attention of developing countries to the B3W initiative, the G7 countries began to criticize the financing conditions of BRI infrastructure projects, claiming that the world's poorest countries are falling into "debt traps." However, China is not the biggest lender to most countries that participate in the BRI. Research by Xinhua News Agency revealed, for example, that, between March and April this year, Chinese participation in Sri Lanka's external public debt was $3 billion out of $27.6 billion. Kenya's external debt was $36.66 billion, with the largest portion of this debt ($17 billion) owed to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In Pakistan, which owes a total external debt of over $125.7 billion, the loan from Chinese entities was $20.3 billion.

The BRI mobilized almost $1 trillion in investments in its first decade. However, the demand for investments within the scope of the BRI currently comes from more than 150 countries with which China has signed cooperation documents. It is worth highlighting that each government directly negotiates the terms of each infrastructure project to be financed. Therefore, the BRI is not a "single undertaking" where a country must unconditionally adhere to a contract prearranged by the Chinese side without the possibility of adjusting it according to its needs and interests.

The BRI is an initiative that respects the characteristics of each country. It does not interfere in the domestic affairs of participating countries. It assumes that the increase in infrastructure will increase exchanges among people. These people are beginning to take a leading role in this New Silk Road, transforming their reality and that of their country based on a gradual interaction process with economic actors from other BRI countries, and not due to the will of others who are external to these actors.

The BRI has a dynamic that is in the process of being built. There is still a lot to be done. It is necessary to expand the spaces for disseminating and promoting the business opportunities that the BRI provides. In this sense, in addition to the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation taking place in Beijing, it would be a good policy to promote preparatory meetings in other participating countries. Furthermore, it is crucial to expand cooperation between Chinese institutions that promote events and courses focused on the BRI with institutions from other countries participating in the initiative.  

The BRI is not only a project to increase infrastructure for international trade; it also promotes the exchange of knowledge between people from different countries and cultures, expanding the repertoire of knowledge essential for us to think of new solutions to the problems facing humanity. Investing in the rediscovery of the knowledge of civilizations that were responsible, in the past, for expanding the world's horizons is necessary. China sets an example and invites other countries to embrace this new possibility for the world's future. The BRI is a peaceful exchange project, not an imposition of values and practices. It evokes the best of the past to inspire new approaches in the present and build a prosperous future for all participating countries.

The author is a professor of international law at the Getulio Vargas Foundation School of Law and Fluminense Federal University School of Law in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). He is a senior visiting scholar at Peking University's School of Government 

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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