NEW DELHI: On the day a high-powered delegation led by China’s internal security tsar Zhao Kezhi landed in New Delhi for talks on a security pact, the Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper, ran an opinion piece urging India to get on board China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Titled ‘China-India cooperation can be global yardstick,’ the article by Wang Yaohui, founder and president of the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization, begins by noting that “India, as one of the key emerging economies along the route of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), is a partner that China cannot ignore as it seeks to diversify its international trade.”
The article says, “Bilateral economic and trade cooperation is also facing challenges,” it says. “Political mutual trust needs to be strengthened between Beijing and New Delhi. The external environment easily exerts an influence on bilateral relations.”
To fix this, it offers three steps: First, step up trust and a smooth relationship. Second, provide a better business environment. And finally: “Third, China and India need to explore and enrich new cooperation models under the BRI.”