Published: September 6th, 2023,
Last updated: September 6th, 2023
At the beginning of the new Silk Road was a speech by President Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan. At the time, no one would have guessed that his idea of connecting Central Asia would one day lead to an infrastructure project worth billions. Today, the new Silk Road (also known as the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI for short) has almost 150 member countries, where China is making varying levels of investment. The G7 countries have not joined the initiative. The only exception is Italy, which is currently considering leaving it.