Promoting the Belt and Road Initiative by Strengthening ‘5 + 1’ Cooperation

Abstract

The concept of ‘5 + 1’ refers to cooperation between the five countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)—Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia—and China under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Commonly abbreviated as ‘5 + 1’, this initiative deepens China’s connectivity with the emerging entity of the EEU, which was officially launched on 1 January 2015. The process of advancing the idea of the EEU began in January 2010, when Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan formed a customs union. On 29 May 2014, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the ‘EEU Treaty’ in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Finally, on 1 January 2015, the EEU was officially launched, with the medium-term goal of realising the free flow of goods, services, capital and labour between member countries by 2025, and, ultimately, a union similar to the European Union (EU). On 2 January 2015, Armenia also joined the EEU. Kyrgyzstan, which had originally planned to join in May 2015, joined on 12 August that year.