NEW DELHI – New Delhi has explained that its decision to forego April’sBelt and Road summit was prompted by security and territorial integrityconcerns. It marked the second time India has boycotted the forumon China’s mega-project in the past two years.
“We feel that the infrastructure connectivity should be alignedwith national priorities and should respect and follow certainwell-respected or broadly accepted (norms) in the world, which include theelements of transparency openness, a level playing field, social,environmental and financial sustainability,” said India’s ambassadorto China Vikram Misri, as quoted by The New Indian Express.
The diplomat added that initiatives in which India takes part “must bealigned with national priorities”.
“That is one basket. The other basket is that these initiatives can besustainable and successful only in so far as they respect issues relatedto sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he noted, stressing that India’sabsence at the Belt and Road Forum had not affected trade with China.
The second Belt and Road Forum was held in Beijing from 25-27 April; Indiarefused to send its representatives to underscore its opposition to the $60billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The CPEC, designed as part of Beijing’s much-advertised, trillion-dollarBelt and Road Initiative, seeks to connect China’s western Xinjiangprovince with Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, and Gwadar Port in thecountry’s southwest through a network of roads, railways, and energyprojects.
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The corridor passes through a part of the disputed region of Kashmir whichhas been held and administered by Pakistan for the past seven decades.India has repeatedly stated that the CPEC compromises its territorialintegrity and sovereignty.
A retired Indian Army general said that the CPEC progress signals a”growing proximity” between China and Pakistan. He also voiced concernsthat the recent deployment of Chinese troops close to the India-Pakistanborder (ostensibly carried out to secure the safety of the project amid awave of protests by locals) could be a pretext to the placement of amilitary base inside Pakistan.
April’s Belt and Road summit was the second such meeting to be blockedby India. In 2017, New Deli also sent no delegation to Beijing, saying thatthe summit did not meet the criteria of transparency and respectof sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The 2017 conference gathered 29 heads of state and government, while thisyear’s summit was held on an even bigger scale, drawing together 37 worldleaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime MinisterConte. Major global institutions such as the International Monetary Fundwere also in attendance.
