China wants clarity on BRI dialogues
China on Tuesday challenged India to clarify its call for a “meaningful dialogue” on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) despite Beijing saying that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an economic project with no implications for the Kashmir issue.
China’s foreign ministry also said the “doors” for India to join the BRI would always be open despite India’s decision to skip the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in Beijing that ended Monday.
More than 130 countries participated at the BRF, a summit organised to showcase President Xi Jinping’s BRI that aims to link Asia, African and Europe through infrastructure and transport networks.
India was the notable absentee at the forum.
Explaining the reasons behind India’s decision to skip it, external affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said: “Guided by our principled position on the matter, we have been urging China to engage in a meaningful dialogue on its connectivity initiative…We are awaiting a response from the Chinese side.”
On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying responded to Baglay’s remarks at the regular briefing.
“I do not know what the Indian spokesperson was trying to say. What kind of dialogue is meaningful dialogue? What kind of positive attitude does the spokesman want China to hold?”
“I think our position has been clear and we are always waiting. If they have the answer, they can give me the answer in a public or private way,” Hua said.
“China welcomes the participation of India to the BRI, the answer is clear,” she said. “Now it depends on what attitude the Indian side holds.”
The CPEC is not about “conflict” with any side but for regional peace and prosperity, she said.
India has reservations about the project as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which New Delhi says challenges its sovereignty by lending legitimacy to Islamabad’s claim over the territory.
“No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Baglay had said in the Saturday night statement.
Earlier in the day, a Chinese state media editorial warned that India’s shallow and stereotypical view that China was working against it through the CPEC led New Delhi to boycott the BRF and has the potential to destroy bilateral ties.
Calling the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) a “military group”, the editorial said the burden of the current problems — including New Delhi’s call to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar in the UN — in bilateral ties is entirely on India.
“Overall, these new problems are caused by India’s requirements for China. However, China does not do as it wants,” it said. “China insists that the Kashmir dispute is between India and Pakistan and it (China) has no intention of intervening. The CPEC is a cooperation project in a purely economic sense with no aim to stir up political trouble,” the editorial said.