A total of 37 countries minus India on Thursday will gather at China’s second edition of the Belt and Road forum, a three-day grand event on the world’s largest connectivity project.
The Belt and Road Initiative — a trillion-dollar projectfloated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 — aims to connect Asia, Africaand Europe through a network of highways, rail lines, ports and sea-lanes.
The sheer vastness of the project and the money involved init have caused much awe among many as well as consternation in some countriesthat see the initiative as China’s tool to increase its geopolitical influence.
Under the project, China has poured billions of dollars inover 60 partner countries where it’s building vast infrastructure that rangefrom seaports to railway lines.
The reports about many partner countries like Sri Lanka, theMaldives and Pakistan being under the burden of onerous Chinese loans under theprojects have raised concerns about Beijing’s intent to create “debt traps”.
China will seek to dispel this narrative at the three-dayevent of the year where heads of 37 countries – up from 29 from at the launchof the summit in 2017 – and representatives of over 100 internationalorganisations will be present.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistani PrimeMinister Imran Khan will be among the heads of states, India will give a missto the forum like the last time in 2017.
India opposes the multi-billion dollar artery of the Beltand Road — China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — that cuts throughPakistan-administered Kashmir. The corridor connects the Chinese city ofKashgar with Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.
New Delhi says it cannot be the part of a project thatignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity. India’s nonapproval of the corridor has become a sticky point in its relations with China.
Beijing maintains that the project is purely economic in nature and won’t impact its neutral stance on the Kashmir issue.