As for Chinese debt traps, critics of Beijing point to another vast project in Europe. As with Serbia, it is just outside the orbit of EU rules and regulations – in Montenegro.
Driving along the country’s only motorway is a surreal experience. We have the road to ourselves, apart from a herd of sheep ambling down the central reservation.
The long-conceived idea of the fast road was to boost trade in this Balkan country – by linking the port of Bar, on the Adriatic Sea in the south, to the border with Serbia, in the north. But successive European feasibility studies concluded it would be too complex and too expensive.
Step forward China with $1bnn (£793m). Not a gift to Montenegro, but a loan to be repaid.
However, six years after construction work began, only about 41km (25 miles) has been built – making it one of the most expensive motorways in the world.
After whizzing over bridges and through tunnels carved out of the countryside on the stretch that has been built, we literally reach the end of the road. The project has been dogged with allegations of corruption and kickbacks – and is already two years late. Some wonder if it will ever be finished.
The terms of the deal with China state that if Montenegro fails to repay loan instalments, any decision on what damages might be owed will be carried out in Beijing. China would be able to seize other assets – including, potentially, the port of Bar.
A Montenegrin government minister who inherited this poisoned chalice is 34-year-old Milojko “Mickey” Spajić. He was remarkably bright and breezy when we met over Zoom and explained how he had devised and secured a repayment arrangement so the motorway can never bankrupt his country.
For him, Montenegro’s position is emblematic of many smaller countries looking for funding to start infrastructure projects and boost their economies.
“We need investments. If the Chinese are the only ones interested in investing in you, I say go for it, but just be careful about the terms of these investments, the conditions and making sure everything is in line with your general policies.”
Last week though, Spajić lost his job when a new minority government was formed. Getting the rest of the motorway built – and repaying the Chinese debt – will now be an issue for his successor.
For all the criticism levelled at China, there is one project which some hold up as an example of good construction practices and effective cooperation between East and West. It is just up the Adriatic coast from Montenegro – in Croatia.
Although it is a Sunday when we visit, work on the Pelješac bridge is in full swing – with lorries trundling over it and beams being lowered and drilled into position.
This is Croatia’s biggest infrastructure project and will join the Pelješac peninsula with the Croatian mainland. Currently, to reach the mainland, Croatians on the peninsula have to pass along a stretch of coast belonging to neighbouring Bosnia.
