Announced in late 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is both a colossal infrastructure development scheme and a grandly ambitious undertaking of geostrategic proportions. Mixed responses to the BRI are now emerging as it begins to reshape economic and political decisions across Eurasia. In Europe, Germany’s foreign minister recently stated his view that the BRI is designed to promote a value system different to that in the West. In response to the BRI, Australia, India, Japan, and the United States are reported to be considering an Asian infrastructure development plan of their own. Our panel considered the BRI’s implications for China’s role in the region, and for Australia’s interests going forward.

The Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion with Dr Mathieu Duchâtel, Senior Policy Fellow and Deputy Director of the Asia and China Programme at the European Council of Foreign Relations; Professor Bates Gill, Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University; Dr Merriden Varrall, Director of the East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute; and moderated by Dr Euan Graham, Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute.

Dr Mathieu Duchâtel was in Sydney as a guest of the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University. The Lowy Institute would like thank them for their involvement in this event.

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