THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE AND THE US "INDO-PACIFIC" STRATEGY

The Belt and Road Initiative is mainly a geo-economic cooperation. However, in the so-called Indo-Pacific region, there are currently two different propositions: while one underlines the Initiative's geopolitical and geostrategic significance, the other demands countries within the region to conduct economic cooperation. The US believes that the BRI has geo-economical and geopolitical implications, therefore the potential formation of a Eurasian supercontinent and the "new type of globalization movement" that will arise from the Initiative worries US policymakers. In order to prevent this from happening, American policy elites suggest that the US government take a multi pronged approach. In that regard, the Trump Administration's "Indo-Pacific" strategy is designed to deal with the BRI and essentially contain the rise of China.