Even after last week’s intricately choreographed second global forum of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – to which Australia’s relationship remains unsettled – many questions are still unanswered. How is a project badged “BRI”? How might companies join the Chinese consortia that finance and build BRI infrastructure? With countries as dispersed as Chile and South Africa signing up, does the design retain any geographical logic? What arrangements will mediate disagreements over project financing or implementation? What precisely are the new BRI deals, worth US$64 billion, that China’s leader Xi Jinping announced were signed during the forum?

It was also proclaimed at the forum that BRI projects would now pay more attention to local economic development, regional benefits and environmental protection – but how will these be implemented, and who will monitor them? How will Beijing counter concerns that BRI comprises “debt-trap diplomacy”?

Please click here to read the full “One road, many questions” article published in The Australian Foreign Affairs, written by Griffith Asia Institute Industry Fellow, Rowan Callick.