Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, its implications for The Joint Africa–EU Strategy

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to analyse how the progress of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the participation of African countries may affect the shape and development of the Joint Africa–EU Strategy (JAES), established in 2007. Since 2013, when BRI was presented to the world for the first time, we have been able to observe increased activity of representatives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in promoting and implementing the project. Due to the fact that BRI is going to connect the trade route of China with the countries of East Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, which is supposed to trigger the extension of the Chinese financial and infrastructure activities, it should be considered as a priority for the Chinese government. However, taking into account of still unclear concept of the initiative we should focus on analysing the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on the European Union’s strategy towards African countries.