The Silk Road and the Diplomatic Rebirth of the Pacific—The Case of Peru

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Ana Isabel Fiafilio Rodríguez

Perú

Introduction

The Silk Road has been a great opportunity to direct diplomacy, power, politics, and cultural exchange that shaped international relations during the first centuries of our history. In the 21st century, this network of maritime and land trade routes connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa emerged in a new form: the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by China in 2013. Its geopolitical and economic reach is impressive and is considered by experts to be a fundamental pillar of Chinese foreign policy, along with a grand development strategy. Its projection towards the Pacific has redefined the power dynamics between regions and its impact on trade routes.

This new diplomatic focus on the Pacific promotes trade, infrastructure, and cultural exchange, strengthening areas of influence and cooperation. In this context, countries such as Peru are emerging as strategic actors that articulate their foreign policy with the aim of promoting trade flows and good diplomatic relations. Thus, the new Silk Road not only strengthens ties between East and West but also shifts toward a new balance with the Pacific.

From history to modern diplomacy

The ancient Silk Road emerged during the westward expansion of China’s Han dynasty (Council on Foreign Relations,2023), which included some parts of East Asia, and was a network of land and sea routes connecting China, India, Africa, and Europe. Beyond the exchange of goods such as silk, spices, porcelain, precious metals, glassware, and Chinese products Council on Foreign Relations,2023), The route served as a strategy to consolidate diplomatic ties between the civilizations of that era. Through trade, alliances were established that were not only economic but also political, social, religious, and cultural.

In 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed to empower this legacy through the BRI, with the aim of connecting Asia with Europe, Africa, and Latin America through land and sea networks. More than 140 countries (Hilman, 2021) participate in this understanding with China, making the BRI the initiative with clear objectives for the implementation of projects that will contribute to its greatest economic development in centuries.

The rebirth of the Pacific as a fundamental axis for global economic development

The maritime component of the Pacific is emerging as a new hub of economic dynamism and a fundamental part of China’s strategy, known as the Asia-Pacific region, which encompasses the Asian countries that border the Pacific Ocean and those in Oceania, as well as connecting the ports of Southeast Asia with Oceania, East Africa, and Latin America. From a geopolitical point of view, this projection seeks to strengthen China’s presence in the Indo-Pacific region to diversify its trade routes in the face of risks and bottlenecks in international trade such as the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal, and others (CSIS, 2023).

The Pacific has become the new center of international trade, especially for China. This region offers vast opportunities for access to investment flows, sustained growth toward new markets, and a significant component of innovation and technological development. Currently, maritime diplomacy (Helmus et al., 2024), understood as a foreign policy strategy in maritime spaces, has established itself as a key instrument of power and security, where geopolitical and economic cooperation are intertwined.

Peru and the Silk Road: Economic Diplomacy in the South Pacific

Peru has become one of the most important Latin American players in foreign policy with a focus on the South Pacific, as part of the New Silk Road. In 2013, it established a comprehensive strategic partnership

with China, and in 2019 it officially joined the BRI cooperation framework (Centro Nacional de Planeamiento Estratégico, 2024),positioning itself as a key hub between Asia and South America, mainly due to its geographical location.

The link between Peru and China has been strengthened by free trade agreements (FTAs) dating back to 2010, promoting the exchange of goods and services and generating investment in the mining, energy, and agricultural sectors, among others. China is currently the country’s main trading partner, accounting for 39.1% of exports in 2024 (Centro Nacional de Planeamiento Estratégico, 2024).

One of the most emblematic projects of this relationship between Peru and China is the “Chancay Megaport” (El Peruano, 2024), developed by the Chinese company COSCO Shipping, in partnership with the company Minera Volcan, it is considered one of the most important logistics centers in the Pacific and South America. From a geopolitical point of view, it represents a major project resulting from cooperation between the two countries, with an estimated investment of more than $1.3 billion. This port is designed to be a “Pacific logistics hub,” with a trial phase scheduled for the end of 2024 (Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones, 2024) and aims to significantly reduce logistics transport costs and times and increase the competitiveness of exported products.

The expansion of the Port of Chancay is linked to logistics routes to Brazil and Bolivia and is strategic in seeking to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through rail and road infrastructure (Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones, 2024).These projects can be considered complementary to the port development of Chancay and, together, would strengthen South American bi-oceanic corridors, expanding regional and commercial integration on the continent (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, s. f.).

However, this growing link with China also poses challenges, both in terms of Peru’s infrastructure and territorial management and at the geopolitical level, especially regarding other key trading partners in terms of investment and cooperation (Vera Delzo, 2025). Peruvian foreign policy must therefore be guided by a strategic vision, seeking to maintain a balance between the countries with which it has free trade agreements, while ensuring national sovereignty and sustainable development.

Impact on Latin America: Connectivity and cooperation

The expansion of the New Silk Road to Latin America has generated a new geopolitical focus linked to economic relations and the strengthening of diplomatic dynamism (Myers, 2024). The Latin American region has become a priority destination for Chinese investment in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, transportation, and agriculture, among others (Dussel Peters, 2025). This process seeks to promote global competitiveness, allowing Latin American countries not only to be more competitive, but also to boost the creation of new jobs and increase economic dynamism, in support of the Peruvian domestic market, within the framework of a transpacific connectivity strategy aimed at linking Latin American markets with Asia (Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y del Caribe, 2024).

China has financed major projects in the region, such as the Chancay Megaport in Peru and the reconstruction and modernization of the Manta airport in Ecuador. These infrastructure development experiences facilitate trade and reinforce China’s geopolitical influence (Ellis, 2019), fostering cooperation, especially in the case of Peru, in strategic sectors such as energy, mining, and technology (Myers, 2024).

Geopolitical implications and challenges in the Pacific

The expansion of the new Silk Road in the Pacific has generated new economic interdependencies (OECD, 2025).Chinese investments in Latin America have contributed to infrastructure development, seeking to guarantee and diversify access to strategic resources (Chauvet et al., 2020). It is important to ensure transparency, good governance, and environmental impact so that a comprehensive approach can be adopted to achieve regional sustainable development (Mueller et al., 2016).

From a diplomatic point of view, these initiatives allow for the creation of a laboratory in contemporary international politics, because trade acts as the main driver at the economic and political levels;

infrastructure becomes a result, and economic cooperation redefines the traditional limits of sovereignty in the countries of the Latin American region (Zhang, 2024).

The challenge is to shift the geopolitical focus toward strategic cooperation with sustainability, based on productive and commercial diversification and an international development axis (Dialogue Earth, 2023).

Conclusion

The Pacific diplomacy approach brings significant challenges, such as managing projects with governance and sustainability, and the need not only to quantify external debt, but also to strengthen multilateral governance in trade and infrastructure.

For the new Silk Road to be a true instrument of global development, countries such as those in Latin America must strengthen their institutional capacity, cooperation strategies, transparency, and good governance, as well as take advantage of their good relations with Asian countries.

Latin American countries should not limit themselves to being exporters of raw materials but should become strategic partners that promote innovation and the use of technology in this new Asia-Pacific space.

In this regard, Peru plays a strategic and fundamental role, not only because of its geographical location, but also because of the potential offered by its “port hub.” In addition, it has shown good macroeconomic indicators in recent years at the regional level, which should be accompanied by a foreign policy aimed at diversifying international trade.

The Silk Road is still in force, but it has become a new geopolitical reality that positions China in the Pacific as a hub of power and access to international trade.

The case of Peru demonstrates how trade agreements with Asian countries can be leveraged positively and how diplomacy plays a key role, accompanied by strategies that allow for positioning towards a new international projection. This link constitutes a hub between Latin America and Asia towards a new geopolitical future.

Thus, the new Silk Road is also a renewed route, where trade routes reflect the capacity for joint work and a new diplomatic renaissance at the global level.

References:

  • Council  on  Foreign  Relations.  (2023).  China’s  massive  Belt  and  Road  Initiative.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA2900/RRA2954-1/RAND_RRA2954-

1.pdf

https://www.gob.pe/institucion/mtc/noticias/1182446-mtc-otorga-al-terminal-portuario-de-chancay-la- licencia-para-el-inicio-oficial-de-sus-operaciones

https://docs.redalc- china.org/monitor/images/pdfs/menuprincipal/Dussel_Peters_Monitor_Infraestructura_2025_eng.pdf

  • Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y del Caribe. (2024). La relación entre América Latina y el Caribe con China: Apuntes para una agenda de desarrollo. SELA.

https://sela.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/la-relacion-entre-alc-con-china_apuntes-para-una-agenda- de-desarrollo.pdf

Closing knowledge gaps on China’s investments in Latin America

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