NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took a veiled jibe at China's Belt and Road Initiative as he said that connectivity loses its trust and meaning if it bypasses sovereignty.
While speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in China's Tianjin, PM Modi pointed to the SCO Charter and said that connectivity should always respect sovereignty and territorial integrity.
"Connectivity should always respect sovereignty and territorial integrity — this is a fundamental principle of the SCO Charter. Connectivity that bypasses sovereignty loses trust and meaning," PM Modi said.
"India firmly believes that strong connectivity ensures not just trade, but also trust and development. That is why we are working on Chabahar and the International North-South Economic Corridor, which will enhance connectivity to Afghanistan and Central Asia," he added.
India has boycotted China's Belt and Road Initiative to highlight its stand on sovereignty issues in the controversial CPEC, which is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and the financial viability of Beijing's projects in smaller countries.
Called "One Belt, One Road" in Chinese, the Belt and Road Initiative started as a program for Chinese companies to build transportation, energy and other infrastructure overseas, funded by Chinese development bank loans. The stated goal was to grow trade and the economy by improving China's connections with the rest of the world in a 21st-century version of the Silk Road trading routes from China to the Middle East and on to Europe.
Xi unveiled the concept in broad terms on visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013, and it took shape in the ensuing years, driving the construction of major projects from railroads in Kenya and Laos to power plants in Pakistan and Indonesia. China became a major financier of development projects under BRI, on par with the World Bank.
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