China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Security Implications and Ways Forward for the European Union

The two components of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road—should be seen as mutually synergizing components. Their security implications, therefore, share certain commonalities. Nonetheless, in responding to the two components, the European Union (EU) should note that implications cannot be generalized across regions.

This policy brief, which includes key findings, is an analysis and distillation of two SIPRI–Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) reports on The Silk Road Economic Belt: Considering Security Implications and the EU-China Cooperation Prospects and The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road: Security Implications and Ways Forward for the European Union.