Jasminka Simic

(Journalist, Radio Television of Serbia)

Author

Jasminka Simic is Journalist and Editor in Radio Television of Serbia, Belgrade. She has PhD degree in Political Sciences and is a research fellow of Euro-Atlantic integration. She is also Member of European Association of Law, Belgrade (since 1996), and Member of Forum for International Relations, European Movement in Serbia.

Abstract

China's project of a New Silk Road Economic Belt, including two new trade routes, by land and by sea, is establishing regional economic integration between China and Central Asian countries. The land-based Silk Road Economic Belt will start in Xi'an, stretching west through Lanzhou, Urumqi, and Horgos before running southwest across Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe where it will meet up with the maritime Silk Road in Venice. It includes the construction of the transcontinental railway Xi'an-Duisburg (Germany), which would cut transport of Chinese goods to Europe from the current 40 days to 16 days by rail. The sea-based Maritime Silk Road, hitting Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Beihai and Haikou en route to the Malacca Strait and Indian Ocean, will traverse the Horn of Africa before entering the Red Sea and Mediterranean. Once complete, the new Silk Roads will bring new opportunities and a new future to China and every country along the road that it is seeking to develop. Trade routes linking three continents will challenge both the persistence of the Eurasian economic zone as well as preexisting North American trade networks. One of them is intended to be the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), comprehensive trade agreement that significantly expands trade and investment between the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU), increases economic growth, jobs and international competitiveness.