A Dutch truck laden with automobile lubricant made the 7,400 km journey from Germany to western China via Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan in February. It was the first overland delivery of European goods to travel east on the Belt and Road Initiative under the United Nations convention on international road transport.
China’s hopes of using the so-called Belt and Road to tap into Western markets is well known, but Europe wants to make sure that the new silk road route functions in both directions. Europe hopes to make the China-Europe corridor a new hot spot for trade and will continue to develop the corridor with that in mind.