‘Belt and Road Initiative’ is sometimes mentioned in the news in the context of the affairs of

The correct answer is D) China. The Belt and Road Initiative was announced by Xi Jinping in 2013. It has two arms: the overland Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. It is a China-led infrastructure, trade and connectivity project spanning Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond, financed largely through Chinese state banks.

• A) African Union: Wrong. The AU's flagship long-term vision is Agenda 2063. It is not a Chinese initiative, although several African states take part in BRI as individual countries.
• B) Brazil: Wrong. Brazil is a BRICS member, but BRICS is a grouping and not BRI. Brazil is not the initiator of any connectivity scheme of this kind.
• C) European Union: Wrong. The EU has its own connectivity strategy (2018) and the Global Gateway initiative (2021), which is widely read as a counterweight to BRI, not part of it.

Mains angle: BRI features in GS-II on India's foreign policy. India objects to CPEC because it runs through PoK, and India has stayed out of BRI. This also links to GS-III on infrastructure financing and debt sustainability.

Trap: Aspirants often confuse BRICS with BRI because both involve China and are often named together. BRI is a Chinese project, while BRICS is a multilateral forum.