Expert on prospects of co-operation between Belarus and Global South: economic centre shifting to the East

The collective West is trying to put pressure on the Union State with sanctions policy, and China is also being attacked. However, such actions have a boomerang effect. Political expert Yuri Shevtsov, the Director of the Centre for European Integration, speculated on how Belarus’ liaisons with Asia and the Global South will develop, why the Great Silk Road is unique, and why global investments are going into infrastructure projects.

In his talk with sb.by, the expert explained, “According to statistics, China is currently the second economy on the planet. Its pace of development will place the country on the top of the global ranking in terms of GDP in the late 2020s. China is located in a part of the world where there are several other countries with high GDP growth: Japan (known as the fourth economy of the planet) and neighbouring South Korea. The whole of Southeast Asia is progressing rapidly, so the Chinese breakthrough can be considered as part of a large systemic process. This means that the economic centre of the world – which used to be located in Europe – is now shifting to the Asia-Pacific region. As regards the EU as a whole, it is still more powerful than China, but this is the level of a union rather than a national cross-section. In turn, Belarus is developing together with its strategic partners: Russia and China.”