BackChina road link: Japan shows interest as India, US discuss alternative
Japan will propose a strategic dialogue with US, India and Australia, aiming at counteracting China's expansion under BRI, says foreign minister Taro Kono
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New Delhi: India and the US have had discussions on an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which, if it takes off, may force Pakistan to choose between China and the US as well as signal a new face-off between the world’s two largest economies.
Alongside, Japan will propose a strategic dialogue among leaders of the US, India and Australia, aiming at counteracting China’s expansion under BRI, foreign minister Taro Kono told the Nikkei business daily on Thursday.
In New Delhi, a person familiar with the development said on Thursday that during US secretary of state Rex Tillerson’s visit to India, the two sides discussed China’s ambitious BRI—seen as a vehicle for Beijing to take on a bigger international role by funding and building global transport and trade links in more than 60 countries.
“There was some discussion China’s Belt and Road Initiative and about what we (India and the US) can do together in the Indo-Pacific region," said the person cited above, who did not want to be named.
Tillerson arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday and held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and national security adviser Ajit Doval.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, which broke the story, Tillerson’s discussions on the BRI centred around India and the US “joining hands in providing a rule-based and transparent funding alternative" among countries that had signed up to the Chinese BRI.
“In this context, Tillerson pushed for road connectivity in Bangladesh and Afghanistan so that even Pakistan is inclined to participate in the move," the Hindustan Times report said.
Pakistan and Bangladesh are part of BRI and attended an international conference organized by Beijing in May to formally launch the project. Pakistan has signed up for the China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor (CPEC) that India objects to, as the proposed corridor includes projects that are to be built in areas disputed by India and Pakistan.
In a speech titled “Defining our relationship with India for the next century" last week at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank, Tillerson said, “We have watched the activities and actions of others in the region, in particular China, and the financing mechanisms it brings to many of these countries which result in saddling them with enormous levels of debt. They don’t often create the jobs... infrastructure projects should be tremendous job creators in these economies, but too often, foreign workers are brought in to execute these infrastructure projects. Financing is structured in a way that makes it very difficult for them to obtain future financing, and oftentimes has very subtle triggers in the financing that results in financing default and the conversion of debt to equity," Tillerson said.
The US top diplomat however conceded that it was “hard to compete with someone who’s offering something on financial terms that are worth a few points on the lending side, but we have to help them (countries taking loans from China) put that in perspective of the longer-term ability to control their country, control the future of their country, control the development of their economy in a rules-based system."
“And that’s really what we’re promoting is you retain your sovereignty, you retain your commitment to a rules-based order, we will come with other options for you," he added.
Interestingly, India and Japan are already looking at ways to set up an Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, seen as an alternative to BRI through the creation of quality infrastructure.
It envisages developing capacities to sustain infrastructure, investment opportunities, joint venture projects and private sector financing.
Nikkei said on Thursday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to propose the US-India-Japan-Australia idea to US President Donald Trump on 6 November when they plan to hold a summit meeting.
The proposal is for the leaders of the four nations to promote free trade and defence cooperation across the land and sea to South-East, South and Central Asia, and beyond to the Middle East and Africa, foreign minster Kono told Nikkei.
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