ONE BELT AND ONE ROAD POLICY(OBOR)
UPSC INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
One belt and One Road Policy(OBOR) and India's Counter.
The OBOR initiative was announced in 2013 by China’s President Xi Jinping. The ‘Belt’ refers to the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’, which is a series of overland routes reminiscent of the Silk Road of antiquity and the late middle ages, while the ‘Road’ refers to the sea routes, which is also referred to as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
The OBOR has been referred to as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since 2016 due to the Chinese government’s consideration of the word ‘one’ is prone to misinterpretation. The Chinese media however still refers to it as the One Belt One Road to this day.
The objectives of the OBOR are as follows:
- Creation of a unified large market that makes use of both international and domestic markets.
- Facilitate cultural exchange and integration
- Enhance mutual understanding and trust of member nations that will foster an innovative environment with capital inflows, talent pool and technology database.
India’s Stand on the OBOR initiative
- The Indian security establishment is deeply suspicious of China’s silk road initiatives.
- Delhi’s strategic community has long objected to China’s road construction on land frontiers and port-building in the Indian Ocean as “strategic encirclement”.
- The problem is even more compounded with the presence of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is the presence of CPEC that actually lends credence to the “strategic encirclement” theory.
- However, optimists feel India needs to take a fresh look. Canning the issue will be paving the way for India’s marginalization from the unfolding geo-economic Options for India
Options for India regarding OBOR
- Firstly, the Indian Government must decide for itself whether the OBOR is a threat or an opportunity. In the case of the latter, how making use of it will largely depend on the institutional agencies the strategic objectives India is able to bring forth.
- Improve India’s border infrastructure by refurbishing border management, building new ports. Foreign corporate entities can be collaborated with by the government in order to take up infrastructure projects abroad.
- India needs to match the ambition to back the capacities that allow it to be a net security provider in the Indian Ocean region (Read about Indian Ocean Rim Association in the linked article.). For this to happen New Delhi has to overcome its habitual inability to take speedy decisions with respect to defence.
Advantages of OBOR for China
- It will help China in developing its western region, ensuring safe navigation over sea and improving strategic and economic relations with neighbouring and far-west countries.
- It will help China secure access to energy and mineral supplies allowing China to overcome the “Malacca Dilemma” through access to maritime facilities in the Indian Ocean, granting it an important strategic advantage
- OBOR will strengthen China’s presence in the Eurasian region and puts it in a commanding position over Asia’s heartland.
Potential Advantages to India
- It will help India’s border and outlying areas to develop infrastructure that it presently lacks.
- Funds from financial institutions may be more easily available and support from China and its infrastructure construction companies may also then be readily available.
- This project will help improve connectivity with India’s neighbors improving the economic, diplomatic, and strategic relationship.
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