Water resources are scarce and unevenly distributed along the Belt and Road， whereas virtual water trade could achieve the spatial allocation of water resources over long distances. The virtual crop water trade was calculated， including 37 crops from 59 countries along the Belt and Road between 2010-2018.Based on the results， the spatiotemporal patterns of virtual crop water trade were studied with the method of the standard deviation ellipse， Moran's I index， and LISA index， and the spatial variation of driving forces were analyzed by the geographical detector and geographically weighted regression. The proportion of "low water-consuming and high export" of crops was 4.013%， and the "high water-consuming and high export" was 1.926% among these 8countries. Its import spatiotemporal pattern had a trend of contraction， conversely， the export showed an expansive trend. Some aggregation characteristics arose in the local area， with the high-high concentrated regions for import were mainly distributed among South Asia， and the high-high concentrated areas for export were almost in Central and Eastern Europe. The significant drivers could explain the forcing of net crop virtual water exports well along the Belt and Road， with negative driving characteristics for GDP and positive driving characteristics for arable land area， while population scale， forest area， and the number of bordering neighbors showed positive and negative bipolar driving characteristics among different countries.