SILK ROADS AT A CROSSROADS-OBOR

Why in the News?

The Belt and road Initiative of China has marked its 10-year anniversary and is set to host more than a dozen world leaders in Beijing including Russian President Vladimir Putin in the third Belt and Road Forum.

The BRI plan as per China’s White paper:

1. It is committed to the concept of open, green and clean cooperation with zero tolerance for corruption.
2. It aims to revitalise railway connections to Europe, along with investments in ports around Asia, and building high-speed railways in Africa and Southeast Asia, among other projects.

3. The BRI comprises two parts:
   1. Land-based Silk Road Economic Belt focusing on energy, infrastructure and connectivity projects in Eurasia.
      1. It has envisaged six corridors:
         • China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
         • New Eurasian Land Bridge Economic Corridor
         • China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor (for instance, Indonesia’s high speed train ‘Whoosh’ developed through China’s assistance)
         • China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor
         • China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor
         • Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor
   2. Maritime Silk Road
4. The initial name of ‘One Belt, One Road’ was changed to BRI to convey a more open and inclusive initiative as opposed to a Chinese-dominated one.

The BRI stands at a crossroads:

1. Debt burdens faced by many BRI partners, from Sri Lanka to Zambia with no one lender as multiple funders covering various state-owned banks extend funds that includes China’s EXIM bank, and other players across the spectrum of China’s financial system.
2. India refrained from joining the BRI as the CPEC runs from Xinjiang in China’s west, through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar. 
3. With India’s non-participation the BCIM got stopped and made China to launch China-Myanmar Economic Corridor later.
4. BRI projects in reality are a majorly stand-alone energy or infrastructure projects in partner countries barring a few transnational projects, creating its multilateral tag as a misnomer.
   1. For instance, the China-hosted Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has no governing structure by the BRI and thus, it is not a multilateral initiative but a collection of disparate bilateral ones.
5. BRI 2.0 (second phase):
   1. Sharp reduction in lending with reports citing no take up of new projects.

1. 2. Attention has focused on debt problems in two BRI partners — Sri Lanka and Zambia.
   3. China has planned for rolling out 5G networks through Digital Silk Road with its BRI partners.