Against the prevailing narrative of the The Belt and Road as a top-down strategy to spread China’s geopolitical influence, there is the BRI’s impact through its first decade as emanating «from the middle out and bottom up» via transport-enabled corridors traversing a large number of regions within and across national territories.

The potential for trade between two of the world’s most important economic areas — Asia and Europe — looks set to grow alongside rising global trade volumes, even in the face of considerable headwinds including the economic fallout of ongoing geopolitical tensions.