Subtle China asks India to join Prez Xi’s grand sea trade plan

CHINA AND INDIA HAVE A LOT IN COMMON AND PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER COOPERATION. IF WE COOPERATE, WE COULD SHARE THE COSTS, THE RISKS AND THE BENEFITS. HE ZONGYU, deputy director, China Ocean Mineral Resource R&D Association

BEIJING: China and India are ideal partners for deep seabed mining, the Chinese government scientists has said, in a new if thinly veiled overture to New Delhi to join President Xi Jinping’s ambitious plan to revive an ancient sea trade route through the Indian Ocean.

Chinese scientists told state media that both China and India are technically adept for the high-risk-and-cost job of seabed mining. Both countries also have the advantage of being contactors with the International Seabed Authority (ISA), giving them opportunities to cooperate in projects involving ocean bed mining.

Coming days before the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in China, the new proposal indicates that Xi’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road project will be on the talks’ agenda.

The project envisages linking China via the Indian Ocean to Africa and onwards with links to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India.

China has made it overtly clear that it wants India to be part of the project — not the least because any maritime project passing through the Indian Ocean close to coastal India but not involving the South Asian giant could lead to diplomatic inconvenience.

But India has so far not shown enthusiasm for the project, say- ing details are vague. Xi is likely to urge Modi to be part of it, arguing that China’s interest is in all-round economic prosperity and not — as it appears to many — to increase its maritime influence in the Indian Ocean region and beyond.

“With quickening oceanic development and increasing mineral exploration in the Indian Ocean, China is eager to cooperate with India on deep seabed mining,” the state-run China Daily quoted scientists from the China Ocean Mineral Resource R&D Association as saying.