India will take part in BRF talks: China

will send an official representative to the high-profile Belt and Road Forum (BRF) to be held in Beijing in May, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday amid unease in New Delhi over the ambitious project passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Announcing India’s participation in the forum to promote President Xi Jinping’s pet project, Wang attempted to assuage New Delhi by saying that none of the projects in PoK had any link with territorial disputes in the region.

“As for disputes in Kashmir, China’s position has remained unchanged. The CPEC (ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor) has no relationship with the dispute in certain regions. I want to reaffirm this to our Indian friends,” Wang told a special briefing on BRF on Tuesday.

India has stayed away from Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), partly because of CPEC, which Indian officials have repeatedly said is a “sovereignty” issue.

The Indian embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to Wang’s statement.

Wang said Beijing did not take sides and it was for India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue. The BRI, floated by Xi in 2013, envisages building land and sea routes to connect China with Asia and Europe.

China has in recent weeks been highly critical of India for its perceived interference on Tibet, during the Dalai Lama’s protracted visit to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims is an integral part of Tibet.

There was no response from the foreign ministry till the time of going to press.