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Central Asia, located in Eurasia’s hinterland, is one of China’s primary foreign policy destinations. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has emerged as the most important means of furthering relations between China and the five Central Asian republics. A new phase in China’s foreign policy towards Central Asia was marked by the launch of the BRI, which sparked a new round of cooperation between China and the Central Asian republics. Since the implementation of the BRI in 2013 China’s foreign policy has prioritized Central Asia as part of the initiative. China’s economic interests and influence in the Central Asian republics have increased as a result of the initiative’s implementation. In the era of the multipolar world order in which China as one of the major powers is playing a central role, Beijing’s international policy includes its bilateral and multilateral relations with the Central Asian states. This paper aims to discuss how the Chinese BRI has reconfigured China’s exchange relations and influences on Central Asian countries, as well as how the BRI has worked in each country in the region.

Singapore is currently facing economic realities and geo-political headwinds that bear many similarities to those that brought about the decline and eventual obsolescence of Dunhuang, the desert oasis city in northwest China that once served as the strategic fulcrum of the prosperous Silk Road, connecting East and West for more than a thousand years. Ideological differences and practical conflicts of interest with an emerging China threaten to sideline Singapore and even render it irrelevant as China continues to pursue its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Singapore is experiencing an existential crisis unlike any it has encountered in its past 53 years of independence. A prudent strategic response would be for Singapore to emulate the Swiss model of political balance among nations, maintain its traditional neutrality and rely on its unique strategic/economic strengths in order to ensure the small republic’s survival and long-term prosperity in a region facing tumultuous upheavals in the remainder of the 21st century.

Western artists, philosophers and politicians have inevitably viewed China and its actions through a distorting lens – often seeking to confirm assumptions rather than to gain new understanding. This paper examines Western and specifically American responses to three manifestations of the Silk Road: the historical Silk Road that enabled the transport of goods, people and ideas from China through Central Asia as far as Europe; the “Silk Road of the Western Imagination;” and the modern transformation of the Silk Road into China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It explores reasons for the American idealized fascination for the first two and hostility toward the BRI. The tendency to interpret history and China from a “heroic” perspective serves as an obstacle to fostering a modern era of cultural exchange and cooperation that both Americans and Chinese believe the Silk Road symbolizes.

Afghanistan is considered a rich country from the natural resources’ perspective. This country has high investment potential in energy, mining and agriculture. Recently, the government of Afghanistan signed a contract with an Australian investor to generate solar energy up to 20,000 megawatts. Furthermore, Afghanistan has the largest copper mine in Logar province and is contracted with a Chinese firm. Lithium and gas are other elements that are available in several provinces of Afghanistan. Now, the current government is highly committed to economic development and helping foreign investors. Nonetheless, the Afghan economy is free-market economy, and this makes Afghanistan a market of interest for national and international investors. The geographical location of Afghanistan makes it eye-catching country as it can connect the region and regional countries to Europe through its short routes.