Just days prior to its One Belt and One Road summit due next week, China apparently considered renaming the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to allay India’s fears, but quickly recanted.
A report by NDTV says that the Chinese envoy to India, Luo Zhaohui, had mentioned the possibility of the road being renamed at a closed door meeting on Friday, and the suggestion was made public on the Chinese embassy website. But by late Monday evening, the Embassy scrubbed the offer part from his speech.
A cached version of the page accessed by the news channel shows that China was trying to warm India up to the idea of the road that will pass through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. “It has no connections to or impact on sovereignty issues. Even we can think about renaming the CPEC (sic),” says the deleted bit.
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Just yesterday, in an editorial, a state-run Chinese daily had cautioned India not to "exaggerate" its concerns over the USD 51 billion dollar China-pakistan Economic Corridor or to "overly interpret" or be anxious about China's military development.
An opinion piece appearing in the state-run global times said, "India is viewing beijing and islamabad as potential threats and is suspicious of Beijing's One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)."
The comments in the wake of India's Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, recently airing the view of the need for New Delhi to enter into strategic and defence-related partnerships with countries in its vicinity such as Iran and afghanistan to counter any threat from either China or Pakistan without naming these two countries.
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These comments also assume significance in view of the fact that later this month China will be hosting a key summit on OBOR in which at least 28 heads of state and government, including the prime ministers of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, have confirmed participation.
The article says, "Instead of being overly concerned about China's rise, New Delhi should consider taking or playing an early role in B and R initiative. China's infrastructural initiative will not only bring economic benefits, but also fulfil India's ambition to be an influential economic power in the region."
The OBOR initiative includes a maze of road, rail and port projects through a number of countries to connect mainland China to markets in Asia and Europe.
While the CPEC is highlighted as the "flagship project" of the initiative, it also includes the Bangladesh-China-India-myanmar (BCIM), New Eurasian Land Bridge, China-mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
(With PTI Inputs)
