The Seventh Corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

Since the launch of Chinese “One belt, One Road (OBOR)” initiative in September 2013 later renamed as "Belt and Road initiative (BRI)" the bulk of academic research has been devoted to the evaluation of the suggested land and maritime routes of this gigantic project. In recent years the main focus of the Western and especially American expert community was the link between BRI and Chinese foreign policy strategy with more emphasize of possible negative ramifications of the project for the states involved. The terms such as “Debt diplomacy” or “Debt trap” were disseminating more and more in both academic and political circles.  Meanwhile, the Chinese and into some extent Russian experts were seeking to delegitimize the Western claims and to accentuate the mainly positive results of the BRI. In this battle of arguments, rejections, and accusations the countries not initially included in BRI were under attack of uncertainty and ambiguity – what BRI is really about and is it worth to make efforts to be included there