Geopolitical instability poses challenge to Silk Road plan

China's Silk Road plan could boost regional trade and investment but it faces serious tests due to geopolitical instability, Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, has warned.

"It'll be beneficial for everybody along the line," Wuttke said last week in an interview with the South China Morning Post, referring to the Silk Road plan first broached by President Xi Jinping last autumn.

However, he added: "It's [going to be] a tough project to follow because it's through politically very difficult regions."

The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea has remained in turmoil after Russia seized it in March following the ousting of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. There were also some Central Asian countries that were "politically not very stable", Wuttke said.

Such geopolitical volatilities would pose "the biggest challenge" to China's success in the Silk Road strategy because some regional development might be out of Beijing's reach, he said. "If these neighbours have troubles, then China would have problems."