Interestingly Russia is not celebrating its worldwide development achievements, but instead lavished praises on the People’s Republic of China. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) primarily seeks to link China with markets and economies across Asia, Africa and Europe. Today, the Belt and Road initiative is the backbone of China’s foreign economic and foreign policy. In January 2021 Botswana became the 46th African nation to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In the first half of 2023 alone, trade turnover between China and Belt and Road countries grew by 9.8% year on year.
