LT GEN PRAKASH KATOCH
MAY 23, 2015
In March 2015, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi put out a document titled “Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. The document highlights the initiatives of President Xi Jinping in building the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ and ‘Belt and Road’, latter denoting the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. In 2013, China had expounded the Maritime Silk Road oriented towards ASEAN, to create strategic propellers for hinterland development. So, now accelerating the building of the Belt and Road is aimed to help economic prosperity and regional economic cooperation. The Belt and Road Initiative aims to promote the connectivity of Asian, European and African continents, and their adjacent seas.
Typical to all Chinese documents, this document too emphasizes that the Belt and Road Initiative is in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, upholding the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence – an euphemism to dilute the strategic and geopolitical aims of China behind this game.
The Belt and Road initiative is to run through Asia, Europe and Africa, connecting East Asia at one end and Europe at the other, significantly, connecting China with Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean (both through Pakistan) with the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road designed to go from China’s coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China’s coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other.
China’s Maritime Silk Road oriented towards ASEAN announced in 2013 passes through Myanmar and at best ‘may’ link Calcutta in India, that too because China wants to integrate Bangladesh in its strategic game and aims to drive a wedge through north-east India to the Indian Ocean (whatever the timeframe and with or without consent of a favourable dispensation in Bangladesh), that being the reason behind putting out a malicious and illegal claim to entire Arunachal Pradesh comprising 90,000 sq kms of Indian territory as late as 2005, and the claim to Doklam Plateau in Bhutan adjacent to the Siliguri Corridor. The fact is that with the shift of America’s Pivot to Asia away from Afghanistan, China has put her entire weight behind Pakistan – the US$ 47 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, sale of 120 x JF-17 fighter aircraft and 6 x diesel powered conventional submarines (which will be armed with tactical nuclear weapons) to Pakistan being only some pointers.
While the strategic Gwadar port adjacent to the Straits of Hormuz has already been leased by Pakistan to China for 40 years, the implications of this are very clear and it did not require foxy Musharraf to declare in 2003 that India would find the Chinese navy positioned in Gwadar, in the event of hostilities – talk of national shame in hiding behind the skirt of another nation! The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor are closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative, but ignore India on purpose.
On land, the Initiative will focus on jointly building a new Eurasian Land Bridge and developing China-Mongolia-Russia, China-Central Asia-West Asia and China-Indochina. The document aims to optimize the geographical advantages of Xinjiang region for westward opening-up, to deepen communication and cooperation with Central, South and West Asian countries. At the same time full play is planned for Inner Mongolia (also restive region) to be linked with Russia’s Far East, for building key windows opening to the north. Similarly, geographic location of Yunnan region is to be used to optimize the link to Southeast Asian countries, while border trade and tourism and culture cooperation is planned between Tibet Autonomous Region and neighboring countries such as Nepal. Significantly, there is no mention of India in the entire vision document.
China’s strategic game is that her Maritime Silk Road is to finally be protected by the Chinese naval ships and submarines, in a bid to dominate the Indo-Pacific region. That is why the enormous investments in port developments in the IOR that are eventually aimed to station Chinese Navy in the region, as also provide support to Chinese Carrier Battle Groups operating in the India Ocean. Already, the Chinese navy is extending its range of operations while also converting reefs (including reclaiming submerged ones) to create military facilities and airstrips in the South China Sea.
By deliberately ignoring India in its Silk Route and Belt Strategy, China has declared her long-term hostility towards India, among all the smiles and subterfuge. The involvement of Chinese intelligence with our north-east insurgents and Maoists, and systematic radicalization of Maldives using Pakistani proxies bodes further ill.
(The author Lt Gen Prakash Katoch is veteran Special Forces of Indian Army.)
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