Message to Islamabad on New Delhi’s role

: A Sino-India joint economic project in Afghanistan will send the signal that cooperation can prevail over competition, experts have said, adding it sends a message to Pakistan that China recognises India’s legitimate role in Afghanistan.

India and China will for the first time implement a joint economic project in war-torn Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday at the end of the two-day informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping.

India and China had earlier discussed possible cooperation in third countries and as early as in 2010 officials from the two countries exchanged views on possible infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

The sidelined discussions on the plan got a boost at the summit where Modi and Xi talked cooperation in a third country.

“There will be more China India projects in the region in the pipeline, some of which will involve a third party,” Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuan you told a media briefing at the end of the summit. Separately, an Indian official said the project will be in Afghanistan.

The decision will have a bearing on the region and on Afghanistan’s role as a “roundabout” of cooperation in Asia, said Barnett Rubin, Senior Fellow at Center on International Cooperation and former advisor to US State Department and Afghanistan UN mission. “This agreement constitutes recognition of Afghanistan’s efforts to become a “roundabout” of Asian cooperation — it is exactly what the government has been working for. It also constitutes an implicit rebuke to both the US and Pakistan,” Rubin said.

He added: “The Trump administration has tried to portray Asia as the scene of a new old War between China with the Belt and Road Initiative and the so-called “Indo-Pacific” led by the US and India.

BEIJING