Link: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2020-10/30/c_139479157.htm
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has recently announced Uzbekistan’s support for the new passage connecting Western China and Western Europe for international transports. With the new proposal, Kazakhstan is expected to be the link between China and Western Europe, this extension is an important part of the Silk Road and the overland portion of the belt road initiative. Shavkat also proposed creating some new links in the Central China area. He believes that this is the future for economic cooperation once the COVID pandemic ends. He has an idea of connecting new railway projects in Central China to the Trans-Siberian railway, and of course the Western Europe transport corridor.
I believe this proposal is a much needed link for Western Europe and China, and will solve their disconnection. It is also quite obvious why President Mirziyoyev supports the idea, given the corridor will go through Shymkent City in Kazakhstan, only 120 km from Uzbekistan. This will kick start their economy and help dig them out of the hole caused by the pandemic. It is hard to tell whether this will have a positive or negative impact in the long term, but one thing that is for sure is the inevitable blend of cultures through Asia and Western Europe. For the country of Uzbekistan, this will mean more recognition on the international scale. I believe this proposal is just a byproduct of the toll COVID had on most economies, when an economy is in or nearing a depression, cooperation with other nations seems to be a common solution.
We can go deeper into this situation by using the four levels of analysis. From an individual perspective, this idea was proposed by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, most likely to increase the economic welfare of his country. On the domestic level we can take look at Kazakhstan; since Kazakhstan has connection to the Silk Road, Shavkat knew that they were the door to international participation and hopefully more recognition. On an interstate level we analyze China and the influence that the Silk Road has on every country involved, from Europe to East Asia. Globally we would take every country that could be affected economically into account, for example we could analyze the US since we are very big trading partners with China. Would this be good or bad for the US economy? I really can’t see how it would support the US economy since China is finding new partners that could put us at risk.