As serious problems emerge with the further development of China's ultra-ambitious New Economic Silk Road, the formally named Belt, Road Initiative (BRI) the Russian Federation, especially in the wake of Washington's mis-named trade war, is finding a positive role that could serve to change the entire dynamic of East Asian and Eurasian economic development. Depending on how it proceeds, it could help China to make necessary corrections to its current BRI development model and even benefit the development of the United States in a peaceful way. Here are some factors to consider.
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping formally proposed his BRI project in Kazakhstan in 2013 the project has undergone a huge advance across many countries from Pakistan to Malaysia to Africa. The original rather vague concept has been greatly expanded with creation of numerous state-tied think tanks in China proposing this or that new element. A major problem, however, has become evident in recent months in several BRI partner countries where China seems to have pursued its own project concepts such as in Malaysia, without due consideration for the needs of the partner country, sometimes leaving them with unpayable debts.
The BRI is one of the truly transforming ideas for rebuilding our debt-bloated world economy in a productive way. If that is to happen, it cannot be a mere repeat of the Anglo-American IMF model, "with Chinese characteristics."
Here is where recent initiatives of Russia's Putin government could provide a major recalibration. The recent ASEAN meeting is instructive in this regard.
Comment: Contrast this with the attitudes of countries like the US, UK and France (not to mention many other European nations) who loudly denounce Russian media outlets like RT.com and Sputniknews.com as "propaganda tools". Yesterday the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, banned Russian media outlets from attending a press conference in Paris between himself and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. It was only when Lavrov said he would not attend the conference unless Russian media was allowed to enter that the French Minister backed down.