As India strongly objected to China’s Belt and Road Initiative at the recently concluded Second United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference in Beijing, First Secretary Priyanka Sohoni’s microphone curiously went silent for some time due to a “technical glitch” while she was raising New Delhi’s concerns regarding the controversial project.
Sources in New Delhi, however, refused to accept “technical glitch” as the reason behind the mike failure at the UN meet held from October 14 to 16.
UN under-secretary general Liu Zhenmin asked Sohoni to continue her speech. “We are confronting some technical problems and played the video of the next speaker. I am sorry for that,” Liu said after the mike was restored at the conference hall.
Sohoni said, “We share the international community’s desire for enhancing physical connectivity and believe it should bring greater economic benefits to all in an equitable and balanced manner. There have been some references to the Belt and Road Initiative or BRI at this conference. Here, I wish to say that as far as China’s BRI is concerned, we are uniquely affected by it. Its inclusion of the so-called China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a flagship project impinges on India’s sovereignty.”
The BRI is a multi-billion-dollar initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to enhance China’s influence and also link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.
The $60 billion CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship of BRI.
A Pakistani diplomat, one of the speakers ahead of Sohoni, had showered praise on the BRI and CPEC projects, terming it as a “game-changer” for the region.
Xi has been aggressively promoting BRI for the last few years, and referred to it at the UN conference in his opening day speech, which focused on promoting sustainable transport to bring down the carbon emissions.
“China will not change course in its pursuit of a new system of open economy of higher standards, and China will not waver in its resolve to promote trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation,” Xi said.
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