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
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.
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.
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.
India, along with Pakistan, joined the group last year.
All the other foreign ministers – from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – “reaffirmed support for China’s Belt and Road proposal”, the statement read.
It gave no further explanation.
The communique otherwise was a broad expression of unity by the ministers on issues ranging from their support for the Iran nuclear deal to the need to combat the spread of extremism.
Modi is coming to China as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a difficult year marked by the Doklam stand-off.
The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of the Himalayan border last year. At one point, soldiers from the two sides threw stones and punches.
The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers underscored Indian alarm at China’s expanding security and economic links in South Asia.
In comments carried on the foreign ministry’s website, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said holding the meeting in an informal way meant the two leaders could have a deep exchange of views in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere to promote cooperation.
“This not only will benefit the two countries and two peoples, but will also have an important effect on peaceful development in the region and around the world,” the ministry paraphrased Kong as telling Indian media in Beijing.
Modi will visit China in June for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
China will also have to tread carefully to avoid giving its close ally Pakistan cause for alarm.
China on Monday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would “never rust”.
