Supporting the Belt and Road Initiative From Chinese President Xi Jinping proposing the initiative to jointly build the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” in 2013, to the release of The Belt and Road Initiative: Progress, Contributions and Prospects report in 2019, the Belt and Road Initiative has made concrete progress over the years in the areas of policy coordination, connectivity of infrastructure, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and closer people-to-people ties.