Boycotting China’s B&R meet

16/05/2017

India has boycotted China’s high-profile Belt and Road Forum, taking its protest over a controversial economic corridor traversing through Pakistan- occupied Kashmir (PoK) to a new level despite Beijing’s overtures to ensure New Delhi’s participation. No Indian official of any level was present at the elaborate opening ceremony attended by 29 heads of state and Government along with top officials of the world bodies like the UN, the World Bank and the IMF. India skipped the meeting due to its sovereignty concerns over the USD 50 billion CPEC, which passes through PoK. The US sent a delegation led by Matt Pottinger, special assistant to the President and senior director for Asia at the National Security Council.
China apparently saw India’s boycott coming as no seat was allotted to it at the high-tech Convention Centre during the opening ceremony telecast live. Skirting any references to India’s absence at the meeting, Xi, in his address after inaugurating the Summit, said all countries should respect sovereignty.
Dismissing assertions that the initiative was aimed at forming a “small group” of nations taking part in the One Belt and One Road (OBOR) venture, Xi said China plans to build it as a road to peace and link his country to much of Asia, Europe and Africa. In the run-up to the forum, China had sought to allay India’s concerns over the CPEC, saying that the project has no bearing on its stand on the Kashmir issue which should be resolved between India and Pakistan through dialogue. In another bid to allay India’s concerns, Chinese ambassador to New Delhi Luo Zhaohui, during an address at a think tank in New Delhi, had offered to rename the CPEC, insisting that it was an economic cooperation and connectivity enhancement project devoid of “sovereignty issues”. However, China had later removed the remarks of its envoy from the transcript of his speech posted on the Chinese Embassy website. While the absence of India was a talking point among the 4,000 Chinese and foreign media registered to cover the event, there was no official comment from China on New Delhi giving the forum a miss.

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