INDIA ONCE AGAIN REBUFFS CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE – India is proving to be a growing competitor to China across more than just physical borders. The nation was notably absent from a list of nations that issued a joint communique confirming the BRI. That list includes Russia and Pakistan. India continues to reject China’s BRI. Xi’s decision to seek to create closer relations with Pakistan is adding to the friction between the two nations.
NEWSWATCH BLURB:
India’s ‘No’ To Belt and Road Initiative at SCO Meet Is A Continuation of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s China Policy – news.google.com
Excerpt:
By 2017, India had sharpened its critique of the BRI and rejected an invitation to the first BRI Forum in Beijing. In a statement issued hours before the forum was scheduled to open, the MEA issued a comprehensive statement on its objections which were threefold.
First, that the corridor included projects in territory belonging to India. Second that it could push smaller nations on the road to a debt crisis and be ecologically destructive and disruptive to local communities. And third, that China’s agenda was unclear, implying that this was more about extending Beijing’s political influence than in creating public goods.
In response to the Indian criticism, China did signal that it was willing to discuss the issues and possibly even rename CPEC to assuage Indian concerns. Wang Yi indicated that China was willing to work in the language of its 1963 agreement with Pakistan, that all agreements relating to Kashmir would be subject to re-negotiation after the “settlement of the…
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