India stands isolated at SCO Foreign Minister's Conference
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BEIJING: India stands isolated at the SCO Foreign Ministers Conference after its refusal to join the multi billion dollars peoject whole all the other foreign ministers — from Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — “reaffirmed support for the Belt and Road proposal”, the statement read.
India refused to extend support to China’s ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at a foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on Tuesday.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road.
India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, run through Azad Kashmir.
Whether or not China will be able to win India round to the BRI will likely be a key measure of the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China to meet Xi Jinping for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.
But Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) met in Beijing.
India, along with Pakistan, joined the group last year.
All the other foreign ministers — from Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — “reaffirmed support for the Belt and Road proposal”, the statement read.
It gave no further explanation.
