New Silk Road Initiative

The New Silk Road Initiative was a United States initiative in the 2010s that aimed to integrate Afghanistan with Central Asia, boosting trade and economic development.[1][2][3] Originally developed by the staff of General David Petraeus at the United States Central Command,[2] it was formally announced by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 in a speech in Chennai.[4] However, the initiative never got off the ground.[5][6][4] General Jim Mattis cancelled all military funding after Petraeus retired, and the US State Department lacked the funds to implement the projects.[5] The term "New Silk Road" is now commonly used by journalists to refer to China's Belt and Road Initiative.[7][8][9][10][11]

Key projects that were previously linked to the US initiative were later funded by other sources. The CASA-1000 hydroelectricity project is being funded by a consortium led by the International Development Association. The United States contributed 1% of the cost of the project before it pulled out, making it the smallest of seven funding sources.[12][13] The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline (TAPI) is being funded by a consortium led by the Asian Development Bank.[14] Contrary to a conspiracy theory that was posted to Facebook in 2021, the United States has provided no funding to TAPI.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "U.S. Support for the New Silk Road". state.gov. Archived from the original on 2018-11-19.
  2. ^ a b Rosenberger, Leif. "The Rise and Fall of America's New Silk Road Strategy". The Street EconoMonitor.
  3. ^ "U.S. Relations with Central Asia after 2014 and the New Silk Road: Regional Integration, Trade and Economic Prospects". Jamestown Foundation.
  4. ^ a b "US, India To Revive New Silk Road Seen As Counter To China's Belt And Road Project". NDTV. Press Trust of India. 24 May 2017.
  5. ^ a b Rosenberger, Leif (14 June 2021). "American Foreign Policy: The Rest of the Story". TheStreet EconoMonitor.
  6. ^ Chandran, Anurag Ram (5 May 2017). "Why Afghanistan Should Join CPEC". The Diplomat.
  7. ^ Tiezzi, Shannon (9 May 2014). "China's 'New Silk Road' Vision Revealed". The Diplomat.
  8. ^ Monteleone, David (8 January 2018). "A New Silk Road". The New Yorker.
  9. ^ Simpfendorfer, Ben (2009). The New Silk Road: How a Rising Arab World is Turning Away from the West and Rediscovering China. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230580268.
  10. ^ Kuhn, Anthony (16 May 2017). "For China's 'New Silk Road,' Ambitious Goals And More Than A Few Challenges". NPR.
  11. ^ "The new Silk Road". The Economist. 10 September 2015.
  12. ^ "CASA-1000 Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission Project". NS Energy.
  13. ^ Putz, Catherine (8 February 2018). "CASA-1000 Creeps Toward Construction Bridging Central and South Asia". The Diplomat.
  14. ^ "Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline". Hydrocarbons Technology.
  15. ^ "No, Biden administration is not helping build a pipeline in Afghanistan". Politifact. 18 February 2021.