It seems that EU (generally NATO) members are missing a great opportunity under pressure from USA. Just as with sanctions against Russia, EU is allowing USA to impose their political (and economical) interests and paying high price for that.
The New Silk Road has two parts – the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the oceangoing Maritime Silk Road. The land-based project includes countries situated along the original Silk Road through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, and calls for greater integration with the hopes of developing a cohesive economic zone.
The $150 billion project is scheduled for completion somewhere between 2020 and 2025 and China has already announced the planned construction of the Urumchi-Tehran leg of the railway which could eventually reach the Turkish border. The New Silk Road is an entirely pragmatic undertaking aimed at making Asian mineral riches available to Chinese investors and build a shortcut for Chinese exports to Europe. This would also bring China up to par with the United States as a global political player through the creation of a “belt” of loyalist states in Asia cooperating in logistics, energy, construction and culture. “Iran, with its advanced infrastructure, is a busy land and maritime crossroads connecting North with South and East with West. That’s why it is viewed by China as a country capable of playing a key role in the New Silk Road project,” Vladimir Sazhin he said, adding that Iran too was interested and agreed to invest $6 billion by 2022. When addressing at a meeting of Silk Road Cities’ mayors in Qazvin earlier this month, Velayati said that Iran would play a key role in the project and that its Bender-Abbas and Chabakhar seaports were major sea and overland transport hubs seen by China as an “ideal instrument” for achieving its goals.
“Iran is trying to take part in multilateral unions and is fully aware of the need to cooperate with all countries, including those in Asia,” Dr. Niya said. He added that Tehran’s interest in the New Silk Way project was five-pronged and included cooperation in the field of free trade, coordination of the countries’ regional policies and consolidation of their infrastructures and industrial potential, as well as financial and cultural integration. “Iran’s main priority in all these projects is closer cooperation with Russia, China and India,” he emphasized.