India has strong reservation over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of China’s prestigious ‘Belt and the Road Initiative’ (BRI) and is expected to figure prominently in the two-day meet. In a strongly-worded statement issued hours before the opening of the forum in the Chinese capital, India said the connectivity initiative must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity. “Guided by our principled position in the matter, we have been urging China to engage in a meaningful dialogue on its connectivity initiative, ‘One Belt, One Road’ which was later renamed as ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said. “Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) initiative is aimed at enhancing logistics efficiencies in South Asian region.

Source: Mint May 13, 2017 18:22 UTC