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China fails to win India round to Belt and Road Initiative ahead of Modi’s meeting with Xi

New Delhi refuses to give Chinese leader’s flagship scheme its backing because of transport corridor that passes through Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir

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Narendra Modi will be visiting China this week for informal talks with Xi Jinping. Photo: Reuters

China failed to get India’s support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday.

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The scheme is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s landmark initiative to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of the old Silk Road.

India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the US$57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, runs through Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which India considers its own territory.

Whether or not China will be able to bring India round to the project is likely to be a key measure of the success of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to China for an informal meeting with Xi on Friday and Saturday.

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But India’s foreign minister did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after the foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation met in Beijing.

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