The Beijing–Minsk Partnership and Belarus’s Role in China’s Economic Relations with the European Union

China’s deepening ties with the Republic of Belarus, combined with the latter’s geographic position between the EU and Russia (the veritable leader of the Eurasian Economic Union), stands to potentially benefit China’s bid to deepen economic cooperation with the European Union. More specifically, enhanced collaboration between Beijing and Minsk helps the PRC develop relations with the Eurasian Economic Union (essential to China’s ambitions to augment cooperation with Europe) while simultaneously providing a geographic avenue for China into the central and eastern European regions of the EU for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Nevertheless, the degree to which Beijing’s stronger relations with Minsk will serve Chinese interests in connecting with Europe will depend in large on whether or not Belarus and the EU can overcome significant differences in their relationship, as well as whether the relationship between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union (as a partner of the BRI) takes on a cooperative or a competitive nature.