The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) or the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, is a development strategy adopted by the Chinese government involving infrastructure development and investments in 152 countries and international organizations in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

The China–Mongolia–Russia Corridor, which will run from Northern China to the Russian Far East, is one of the important land corridors of the Silk Road Economic Belt . The Russian government-established Russian Direct Investment Fund and China's China Investment Corporation, a Chinese government investment agency, partnered in 2012 to create the Sino-Russian Investment Fund, which concentrates on opportunities in bilateral integration. 

Inner Mongolia has long been an important base for China's business cooperation with Mongolia and Russia to its north.

Since the Chinese government announced the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative in 2013, the autonomous region has regarded countries related to the initiative as major partners for its foreign trade and investment.