China’s ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, offered to change the name of the China-Pakistan economic corridor to assuage Indian sentiments if it would persuade India to join the One Belt One Road (OBOR). The Chinese embassy in Delhi removed the relevant portion from the transcript of his speech after Pakistan government protested to China.
In the past few weeks, the Chinese ambassador and his deputy have gone out of their way to entice India into joining the OBOR. China is setting much stock by the OBOR summit in Beijing which starts on May 14, but without India. India has refused to send any representation to the summit, having expressed deep reservations about the project.
Addressing the United Services Institution (USI) in the capital, the Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui said India and China should synergize the Act East Policy with OBOR. “OBOR and regional connectivity could provide China and India with fresh opportunities and highlights for the bilateral cooperation.”
The Chinese envoy then made two points, according to some members of the audience. First, that China acknowledged that Kashmir should be resolved bilaterally between India and Pakistan “in accordance with the Shimla agreement.” This was seen as a positive shift in the Chinese position. Then he said, if it pleased India, China could even rename CPEC into a China-Pakistan-India corridor. Afterwards, he was questioned by the chairperson, former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal on his “offer”. Luo suggested they could run the corridor through J&K (the part under Indian control) as well and tag India’s name to the project. “It was totally disingenuous,” said a listener, “by pretending to underplay India’s objections based on sovereignty.”
However, the Chinese envoy acknowledged Indian reservations on OBOR. “The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passes through the Pakistan-Controlled-Kashmir, raising sovereignty concerns. China has no intention to get involved in the sovereignty and territorial disputes between India and Pakistan. China supports the solution of the disputes through bilateral negotiations between the two countries. The CPEC is for promoting economic cooperation and connectivity. It has no connections to or impact on sovereignty issues.”
India has insisted that sovereignty concerns here are paramount, since by China’s actions it was trying to change the ground reality and therefore a challenge to sovereignty.
The Chinese ‘offer’ was received with alarm and indignation in Pakistan and derision in India. Pakistan media reports said the Nawaz Sharif government had sought clarification from China. Afterwards, the relevant sentences were quietly dropped from the transcript of the speech put up on the Chinese embassy website.
India’s absence is a problem for China because its participation would actually be a key to the success of the initiative. However, India has refused to be part of it given China’s insistence on the CPEC through Indian-claimed territory. In addition, India considers OBOR to be a unilateral enterprise for China to export its excess capacity. But the sovereignty issue is paramount.
India, which remains sceptical of Chinese intent, has watched with concern how Beijing has changed the ground reality in areas in the South China Sea, building the political narrative to suit the reality. In Arunachal Pradesh too, China has moved from unilateral withdrawal in 1963 to claiming the entire state in 2005. Therefore, India is unlikely to buy the Chinese line that CPEC/OBOR is merely a connectivity story. India regards CPEC as a Chinese geo-strategic project going through Indian territory, with the intent of making Gwadar a military installation.
Another senior Chinese official, Liu Jinsong, told a think tank in Mumbai recently that India was already a part of OBOR due to its participation in the AIIB, its participation in the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) corridor, as well as its accession to SCO. India has endorsed the SCO joint statement which “reiterated support to the initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt.”— TIMES OF INDIA