The basic step in implementing and promoting the “21^st century Maritime Silk Road” and the “Belt and Road” initiatives is to study the economic and trade relations between China and the regions and countries along the “Maritime Silk Road”.

Based on historical documents and previous studies，this paper attempts to define the regions and countries along the “Maritime Silk Road”，and conducts dynamic analysis on the importance of trade，level of openness of a region and the economic and trade relations / potential with China of the whole region，the five main regions and major countries respectively.

We do believe that there are still great potential and space for the cooperation between China and these regions/countries. However，the cooperation is also faced with some problems such as the slowdown in economic growth of the regions，the decline in global trade and economic status，the imbalance of regional development，and the gap in the development of economic and trade cooperation with China and the low achievement in trade potential.

Therefore，we need to conduct in-depth research on the cooperation motivation，mode and model.

Firstly，we need to think about the initiation of and sustainable driving force for cooperation. We must focus on the desire of sustainable development of the countries and find the solution to those problems，which will not only provide sustainable driving force for China and the regional cooperation，but also bring greater cooperation centripetal force to meet the development needs of these regions；

Secondly，we should design and realize regional empirical cooperation mechanism and eventually form the ideal model of a pan-regional cooperation. That means we need to do different collaborative planning based on different levels of development；

Thirdly，we should consider first promoting connectivity and developing finance. Based on the port cities of the countries in the five major regions，we can build the network infrastructure in national hinterlands and even throughout the main cities of the regions；

Fourthly，China should take the opportunity of cooperation initiatives to plan new foreign investment patterns. We must consider a more harmonious，environmentally friendly and sustainable way to invest long-term in the host countries and solve the problems in China’s foreign trade or even deeper problems in industrial restructuring.