It’s billed as the biggest conference of the year, with at least 20 heads of state, representatives of 50 countries and hundreds of international organisations expected to attend. But India is yet to accept Beijing’s invitation to attend the first mega One Belt One Road (OBOR) Forum in Beijing next month. Apart from the fact that a large subset of the project called the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor passes through Pakistan and China-occupied Kashmir, India also has issues over China’s ability to use the route for military purposes if needed, although China vehemently denies any such plans or motives.
In an attempt to woo India and persuade it to join its “most ambitious and all-encompassing economic development project in human history”, Beijing has even toned down its scathing attacks on New Delhi for allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal recently. The arguments for India joining the initiative are that the OBOR’s connectivity and integration could stimulate India’s manufacturing and competitiveness, allow it to exploit China's consumer market and get easier access to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. But so far India remains unconvinced. New Delhi insists connectivity cannot “override or undermine the sovereignty of other nations”.
China says the OBOR aims to connect Asia and Europe in a vast network of roads, railways, pipelines, airports and fibre-optic lines of communication through Central Asia and the Middle East right up to Europe, while the maritime links will connect it with the ports of the Indian Ocean, East Africa and the Mediterranean. What it doesn’t add of course is that it will also enhance Beijing’s position as a global power, and allow it to invest its surplus labour, capital and influence across the 60 or so nations which the belt will finally pass through.But while India might skip the OBOR, several senior officials from India, including PM Modi and NSA Ajit Doval, will be in China over the next few months to take part in the BRICS summit there.