Implementing the “Belt and Road” Initiative in Central Asia in a Pandemic: A Regional Risk Assessment

The relevance of the study stems from the need to assess the impact of the “Belt and Road” Initiative on the economic and political situation of the Central Asian states. In this context, article aims to identify features of the Central Asian states that may, in the process of deepening regional cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, lead to a dependency on it. The following research methods were also used: qualitative and quantitative analysis of scientific sources and documents, analysis of statistical data, discourse analysis, intents analysis, comparative analysis, method of synthesis, deduction. The article presents the results of the survey, revealing not only the strengthening of China’s economic influence in the region, but also, according to some experts, the increasing political influence that is reflected in the public and political discourse of the region’s countries and entails an increase in anti-Chinese sentiment in the form of debt obligations of Central Asian states to Chinese banks, revealing that the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis showed the need to find new ways of economic development. It justifies the importance of building a new cooperation strategy that could maintain a certain balance between the world centers of power – China, the United States and Russia, taking into account the interface between the Eurasian Economic Union project and the “Belt and Road” Initiative. The articles are of practical value in terms of a current expert assessment of the “Belt and Road” Initiative’s impact on the geopolitical and geo-economic situation during COVID-19.