Why India Isn’t Bothered About China’s Attempts To Dance With South Asian Countries

Though China is organising another edition of the China-South Asia Cooperation Forum, the External Affairs Ministry has made it clear India deals with countries in South Asia under New Delhi’s Neighbourhood First Policy. Experts explain to ETV Bharat how China organises such events to promote Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative projects.

New Delhi: Even as China is engaging with countries from South Asia in the Fifth China-South Asia Cooperation Forum (CSACF) that is currently underway in Kunming in the province of Yunnan, India has made it clear that its ties with countries in the region are based purely on New Delhi’s Neighbourhood Policy and a third country’s engagement with such countries is not a matter of concern.

In what can be seen as Beijing’s bid to encircle India through its neighbouring countries using Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pet Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project, the CSACF is being organised for the fifth time, along with the eighth edition of the China-South Asia Expo. In fact, this time, Nepal has been invited to deliver the keynote address at the CSACF.

India, though, has signalled that such engagements by China with South Asian countries are not a matter of concern. “Whether it be Nepal or other countries in our neighbourhood, you know that Neighbourhood First is our policy,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a question during his regular media briefing here on Thursday.

“Under the policy, all the countries in our neighbourhood, whether it be Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or any other country, we are further strengthening our ties,” Jaiswal said. “This is a relationship between India and these countries. What any other country with these countries is doing is another matter. As far as we are concerned, our aim is to further strengthen our ties with these countries under our Neighbourhood First Policy.”

The CSACF was initiated by China as part of its broader strategy to enhance its influence among South Asian countries. The first forum was held in 2018 in Yuxi, a city in China’s Yunnan province. The selection of Yunnan is symbolic, as the province shares historical and cultural ties with South Asia and serves as a gateway for China’s BRI into South Asia.

The primary objectives of the CSACF include promoting trade, investment and economic integration between China and South Asian countries, mutual understanding through cultural exchange programmes and people-to-people contacts, supporting the development of infrastructure projects under the framework of the BRI, ostensibly collaborating on issues such as poverty alleviation, healthcare, education, disaster management, and environmental protection and providing a platform for political dialogue and policy coordination to enhance regional stability and cooperation.

However, the fact of the matter is that China’s main attempt is to promote BRI projects among South Asian countries through this Forum.

The BRI is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in over 150 countries and international organisations. It is considered a centrepiece of President Xi’s foreign policy. It forms a central component of Xi’s “Major Country Diplomacy”, which calls for China to assume a greater leadership role in global affairs in accordance with its rising power and status.

Observers and sceptics, mainly from non-participant countries, including the US, interpret it as a plan for a Sino-centric international trade network. Critics also blame China for putting countries participating in the BRI under debt traps. In fact, last year, Italy became the first G7 country to pull out of the BRI. Sri Lanka, which participated in the BRI, eventually had to lease out the Hambantota port to China due to debt repayment issues.

India has opposed the BRI right from the beginning, mainly because its flagship project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

What is interesting though this time is Nepal being invited to deliver the keynote address at the Forum. This comes close on the heels of a new coalition government coming to power in Kathmandu headed by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML). In recent times, Beijing has been trying its best to woo Kathmandu to implement BRI projects in Nepal.

However, Nepal is wary of getting trapped in unsustainable debt owed to China through BRI loans for expensive infrastructure projects. Nepal’s annual debt payments to China have already been rising rapidly over the last decade. Highly concessional terms offered by other lenders make taking on costlier Chinese commercial loans for BRI projects unappealing.

According to MS Prathibha, Associate Fellow at the East Asia Centre in the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, China wants to expand economic cooperation with other countries, including those in South Asia.

“They want to develop their western and southern regions and this means engaging with South Asian countries,” Prathibha told ETV Bharat. “One is regional cooperation and the other is promoting BRI.”

K Yhome, Fellow at the Shillong-based Asian Confluence think tank, said that China has been organising such forums and interactions for some time now as part of Beijing’s multidimensional strategy to engage with sections of society in other countries, be it the academia, media or business leaders.

“They use such forums as a platform to showcase China’s development,” Yhome said. “It is also to give the Chinese perspective of the BRI to other countries.”

Interestingly, even as China is holding the CSACF in Kunming, Nepal Foreign Minister Arzu Rana made it clear that a broader discussion is needed to implement BRI projects in her country. Though Nepal and China signed the BRI framework agreement on May 12, 2017, and China forwarded the text of a plan in 2019, no further has been made mainly due to Kathmandu’s concerns over debt liabilities. Nepal has made it clear to China that it is not interested in taking commercial loans for implementing BRI projects.

“We haven’t decided on anything yet, or whether to adopt a certain funding modal, take a loan or grant for particular projects,” the Kathmandu Post quoted Rana as saying during a meeting at the House of Representatives in Nepal’s parliament. It is because of all this that India has not expressed much concern about China’s attempts to dance with other South Asian countries and promote BRI projects.