POTENTIAL OF REGIONAL COOPERATION WITHIN THE 17+1 AND EXPERIENCES FROM SERBIA

Zakić Katarina (Autor je naučni saradnik u Institutu za međunarodnu politiku i privredu), katarina@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

Regional cooperation within the Chinese platform 17+1 is still very limited. Most of the finished projects were achieved bilaterally, although the first project that was agreed upon was a regional project, e.g. the railway Belgrade – Budapest. Projects that have regional components and are more and more nominated by member countries are mainly those already considered by the European Union, but the Union retracted from fulfilling them. The impression is that most of the projects are \"recycled\" and that the member countries did not offer China new regional projects. Regardless, China is willing to cooperate, but cooperation is progressing slowly. It would be more suitable if the member countries of this initiative could nominate more innovative and manageable projects. Serbia has positive experiences with the realization of bilateral projects, but not so much with regional, mainly due to the negative attitude of the EU.

Keywords: regional cooperation, regional projects, bilateral cooperation, 17+1, China, Central and Eastern Europe, Serbia, European Union