Silk Road through Male but No to Pak

Before Sri Lanka, Xi also visited the Maldives, which he called “an important stop of the ancient maritime Silk Road” in an article published on the local website of the Sun Online.

Xi’s counterpart in the Maldives, Abdulla Yameen, expressed interest in joining the Silk Road initiative during their talks on Monday and he called Xi’s trip “historic,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The two signed a series of agreements on expanding cooperation in trade, tourism, infrastructure construction and the maritime economy, including a project to build a bridge connecting the capital with the airport island of Hulhule.

Xi last year unveiled plans to build a maritime Silk Road, referring to an ancient series of land routes that connected China to the Mediterranean Sea, linking traders, priests, artists and explorers. Details on the project are short and may be fleshed out at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November.

Xi dropped plans to visit long time ally Pakistan on account of the wave of unrest sweeping through the state. Now that China is wary of muslim states and has a foothold in Sri Lanka, the Pak link seems to be weakening.