The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is viewed as a cardinal subset of China’s larger ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative. Give a brief description of CPEC and enumerate the reasons why India has distanced itself from the same. (UPSC IAS Mains 2018 General Studies Paper – 3)
One Belt One Road (OBOR) is one of the major initiatives of China focusing on improving connectivity and cooperation connecting Asia to Europe and Africa.
It has two dimensions: Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), a land route and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) an ocean route.
China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the flagship project of SREB.
It provides rail-road connectivity between Gwadar in Baluchistan, Pakistan to Xinjiang province of China and passes through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
It is one of the largest bilateral initiatives between China and Pakistan with a budget of around $46 billion. CPEC is considered as a boon to struggling Pakistani Economy.
India has openly expressed it displeasure over CPEC due to following reasons:
- CPEC passes through Indian Territory, thus interferes with India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
- There is a lack of transparency around the way the project is funded. It is considered as a part of Chinese policy of debt-equity swap.
- It may disrupt and destroy Himalayan Ecology.
It is said that India should join the CPEC as it will benefit the region at-large and can lead to an improvement in ties between India and Pakistan as economic inter-dependence between the two will increase.
However, it should also be noted that India’s concerns regarding sovereignty and integrity have not been addressed by either China or Pakistan. It will not be good for India to join a project, which challenges India’s sovereignty. In addition, there is no clarity about the funding of the project.
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