With growing trade and energy links between North-East Asia and the Gulf economies, some observers like Christopher Davidson have argued that a twenty-first century ‘Silk Road’ connecting the Middle East region with North-East Asia (among other world regions) augmented by popular perceptions of the so-called shift of gravity to Asia-Pacific economies has encouraged an eastward-looking shift among Gulf economies. For example, Davidson argues that the Gulf economies may be physically connected to North-East Asia by an ancient Karakoram Highway although this may be contested by local tribal stakeholders.

While the Silk Road may have been a main trading route for ancient empires, its long disuse may mean considerable efforts to revive it for contemporary transportation of modern goods, products, services and energy. Any revival has to overcome tremendous challenges of geopolitical, economic, security and infrastructural nature. While it has on some occasions been unified and stabilized by ancient empires to make them profitable routes, the contemporary array and variety of important stakeholders as well as the presence of global and regional economies and states in that region means it is challenging to achieve wide-ranging consensus on the (re?)utilization of this route. The complex situation in the Gulf region may be highlighted by the Gulf Research Center (GRC) which has illustrated the importance of the US's role in the Gulf, as well as India's presence that GRC argues is ‘more extensive than China's’ despite China's growing infrastructure projects in the region.