Dhriti Ranjana Ray

(Principal Research Analyst, Press Trust of India)

Author

Dhriti Ranjana Ray is Principal Research Analyst of Press Trust of India. She has a B.A. degree in political science and diploma in media. Since she joined Press Trust of India in the Business Bureau in 2005, she has been covering press conferences, doing research based analytical stories, keeping track of the equity market for regular stock related stories and editing copies from stringers. She worked as a researcher with ETV Research Wing in Hyderabad from June 2002 to July 2005.

Abstract

Relations between India and China have improved in recent years, especially in areas of trade. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself visited Beijing four times during his 13-year tenure as Gujarat's chief minister. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting New Delhi tomorrow as a special envoy of President Xi Jinping to establish political contacts with the new Indian government. The fact that the Modi government has made a very good beginning in terms of restoring friendly ties with its SAARC neighbors, this initiative – both the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) – should be seen as an important strategic option that should be explored to its best. Both the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road bring to mind a positive historical memory of economic integration among nations. These two initiatives of overland and maritime Silk Roads are inclusive in nature as it will lead to greater connectivity among East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Asia, and help to develop and improve supply chain, industrial chain and value chain. It is thus expected to bring pan-Asian and Eurasian regional cooperation to a new level. While the Maritime Silk Road is primarily aimed at reassuring nations in Southeast Asia and in the Indian Ocean about China's intention of strengthening economic cooperation in the region, the Silk Road Economic Belt draws a new picture for China's relations with its neighbors in Eurasia. Historically, the Silk Road was a network of trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce. The MSR, aimed at improving trade among Asian nations via sea, was mooted last year with countries of Southeast Asia by President Xi Jinping. So far Pakistan and Sri Lanka have affirmed their close ties with China and vowed to back its new Asia security plan and President Xi Jinping's Maritime Silk Road initiative. Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain and Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa have held separate meetings with Xi in Shanghai during their two-day visit to attend the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia and have backed Xi's plan for Asia mooted at the conference yesterday. On economic cooperation, Xi called on the two countries to jointly promote the construction of the China-Pakistan economic corridor, an important part of the Silk Road Economic Belt, through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. China has extended an invitation to India to participate in the Maritime Silk Road project. The invitation was extended during the recently concluded 17th round of border talks between the special representatives of the two countries in New Delhi. China's Special Representative Yang Jiechi has conveyed Beijing's wish in this regard to his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon. India's response was the positive. Details however remain scarce on how this vision will be implemented. Whether would there be bilateral agreements between China and individual countries, or between China and regional groups like the European Union and ASEAN? China last month had set up a US$1.6 billion fund for Maritime Silk Road plan, which is intended to be spent on building ports and boosting maritime connectivity with Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean littoral countries. The Maritime Silk Road is being seen by some experts as a means to assuage regional concerns about China's growing military and naval presence, while some analysts believe, it is just a means by which China is building military bases in countries, from Sri Lanka to Pakistan and Bangladesh (String of Pearls theory aimed at containing India). Elaborating on the Maritime Silk Road, Chinese Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson Hua Chunying had earlier said "This initiative is just an idea for cooperation. It is an open ended platform. The purpose is to integrate all kinds of ongoing cooperation especially cooperation on connectivity in the spirit of (ancient) silk road so that they can connect with each other and promote each other and accelerate regional countries' common development. The MSR was mooted last year with countries of Southeast Asia by President Xi Jinping during his visit to Indonesia and Malaysia where he stated that the MSR would help turn the "Golden Decade" between China and Southeast Asian Countries into "Diamond Decade". The revival of the silk route holds benefits for the region. However, there is lack of transparency and opaqueness in the manner in China does things. Given the magnitude and reach of these gigantic plans, China will have to balance between its impression as a mascot of regional economic cooperation and concerns about its dominating presence among its neighboring countries. Some of the existing projects of cooperation between India and China include the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor and Chinese industrial parks in India. The New Silk Road initiative would lead to acceleration of infrastructure development which includes road construction in Afghanistan, railway network development in Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, and regional power grids development. It would also lower trade barriers, promote the regional trade contacts, the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline; and water resource sharing.