China's Belt and Road Initiative in South Asia and the Indian Response

Headnote

China s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious project aiming to transform the economic landscape along its route in the areas of trade, investment, and energy supplies. It makes as its focal point the connectivity between China and Eurasia, South Asia, and the Indian Ocean. South Asia s location presents China with significant strategic opportunities as Beijing seeks to expand its economic presence in the subcontinent by providing resources in infrastructural development, particularly the construction ofseaports. With growing Chinese trade and investment in the region, Beijing is also extending its diplomatic influence into what has long been considered as India s sphere of influence. With longstanding strategic distrust and unresolved territorial disputes, New Delhi is suspicious of Beijings intentions and concerned over the latter's growing influence into a region it has long considered its sphere of influence. In this context, the BRI has the potential to intensify Sino-Indian rivalry, and the Modi government has indeed explored and launched initiatives to counter Chinese diplomatic activities. It remains a challenge whether and how Asia's rising powers can reduce their trust deficits and explore areas of cooperation made possible by the BRI, working toward a cooperative, mutually beneficial future for Sino-Indian relations and the region as a whole.

Keywords: Belt & Road; China; South Asia; India; geopolitics.

While analyses of Chinese foreign policy have often focused on Sino-US relations and Beijings diplomatic entanglements in East and Southeast Asia since the end of the Cold War, one equally important area of Chinese foreign policy in transition is Beijings diplomacy toward the South Asian subcontinent. During the Cold War and from the late 1950s until the late 1980s, Chinese diplomacy toward the region was largely driven by animosity toward India over unresolved territorial disputes. This informed a policy of supporting Pakistan in its disputes with India and making inroads into the region by providing military assistance to other South Asian states. With the end of the Cold War and gradually improving bilateral ties with India, Chinese policy toward the region has shifted to both focusing on developing political and economic ties with the region and pursuing a more even-handed approach to managing its relationships with both India and Pakistan (Garver, 2001; Malik, 2012). In 2013, the Chinese...