Now that it's been started, the politicians can't stop it – no matter how harmful it might be. It reminds people of Tito and the days of grand socialist projects in the region,' said academic Mladen Grgic, referring to former Yugoslavia's long-time communist leader Josip Broz Tito. 'This highway is a big deal in Montenegro. The government hoped the highway would give an economic boost to the country's underdeveloped north, bolster trade with Serbia and improve road safety as Montenegro's narrow, winding mountain roads are notoriously dangerous. The project was championed by Milo Djukanovic, who has served as president or prime minister of Montenegro nearly uninterrupted since 1991. The idea of building a highway from the coast to Serbia can be traced back to 2005, a year before Montenegro's vote for independence from its neighbour. But I don't think this is a problem from China. He added: 'I think we will pay not maybe this generation, but future generations. Justice Minister Dragan Soc told NPR: 'We make a joke: It is a highway from nothing to nothing.' The government says the first 25-mile section of the proposed 270-mile highway has put them in so much debt that it can't afford to build the rest. Montenegro is the first country in Europe to find itself in this position with what has been dubbed 'the highway to nowhere.' This has allowed them to develop in ways that may not have been possible without access to China's vast foreign exchange reserves.īut some countries, such as Sri Lanka, Djibouti and Mongolia, have found themselves weighed down by debt and ever more reliant on Beijing's largesse. Running from Montenegro's Port of Bar on the Adriatic Sea to land-locked Belgrade, the road is at the heart of an intense debate about Chinese influence in Europe, both within EU member states and countries aspiring to join the bloc such as Montenegro and its Western Balkan neighbours Serbia, Macedonia and Albania.Īs Beijing extends its economic reach under the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), poor countries across Asia and Africa have seized on attractive Chinese loans and the promise of transformative infrastructure projects. 'This is out of any kind of logic of national interest.' The publication reported on the situation in Malaysia, whose rejected a proposal for a BRI deal, but were then subjected to political and economic pressure to take it.ĭespite its critics, a 2020 report by Chatham House - the Royal Institute of International Affairs - found 'limited evidence' that China's BRI scheme was engaged in 'debt-trap' diplomacy.įurthermore, the country's former government green-lighted for a Chinese court of arbitration to have the final say on any contractual disputes.ĭeputy Prime Minister Abazovic said in May that the terms are ludicrous. In March, Kenya's National Treasury cabinet secretary Ukur Yatani attempted to calm such fears, by saying that the port had not been offered as collateral.īut western powers are growing increasingly concerned about the scheme, so much so that the US, along with Japan and Australia, launched their own project - The Blue Dot Network - in 2019.Ī report by US publication Forbes, meanwhile, recently compared China's BRI scheme, and Beijing's use of it, to 'mob' style tactics. In some countries, such as Montenegro, governments have signed up to deals in which China will be able to seize land if debts can't be paid.Įarlier this year, concern was raised in Kenya that China may try to seize the port of Mombasa if the country defaults on its loan from China used to finance the loss-making Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Well, the scheme has been criticised, primarily by western powers, as an attempt by China to engage in neo-imperialism through 'debt trap diplomacy'.įormer Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has previously warned countries against taking up BRI projects, because the terms of repayment are too harsh. Sounds great, right? So what's the catch? It has been billed as China's modern day answer to the famous Silk Road - a series of trade routes which acted as the main connection between east and west for nearly 2,000 years.Ĭhina now wants a new 'Silk Road' - many in fact - and it is willing to dip deep into its pockets to pay for it.Įnter China's 'Belt and Road Initiative' - otherwise known as the BRI scheme.įirst launched in 2013 by president Xi Jinping, and written into the Chinese constitution in 2017, it is billed by Beijing officials as a global infrastructure development fund which aims to better connect China to the rest of the world.Īimed to be completed by 2049, China has been offering huge loans to the countries in order to support them in creating better infrastructure.
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