China may agree on sustainable financial aid for Belt & Road Initiative projects

The Economic Times
Dipanjan Roy Choudhury
April 23, 2019


China may agree on "sustainable financial support" for projects under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in order to assuage concerns of countries including India that BRI may drive several partner nations into a debt trap.

 Ahead of the second edition of the BRI summit – which India is boycotting, as it did the first one – people aware of the matter told ET that China may agree on “sustainable financial support for projects and principles agreed by the United Nations General Assembly on debt sustainability” in a joint communique at the summit, which will be held for three days from April 25. 

The summit is expected to be attended by 37 heads of state and governments even as worldwide unease exists over the BRI’s objectives.

 Along with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a number of BRI projects are controversial. “Of the six roads in BRI projects, the Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam is designated as one road. In addition, the Maritime Silk Road passes through the South China Sea,” China expert Srikanth Kondapalli told ET. “The ASEAN through its consensus, treaty of amity and nuclear weapon free zone and free trade zone initially tamed China since the 1990s. However, today it is a divided house, with no consensus or joint statement issued on the South China Sea islands dispute since 2010. Besides, the second phase of Hanoi Metro has very high interest rates imposed by China.” Kondapalli, who will attend the summit and related events, said: “The Indonesian high-speed railway has also become controversial, as has the Mytsone Dam in Myanmar.

Yang Jiechi’s reported comments for Singapore that ‘you are small, we are big’ signified the working of the asymmetries. Yet, as the Malaysian railway project rethink suggests, some ASEAN members could exert pressure on Beijing for mid-course correction, although one has to watch the final outcome and compromises.” China, he said, has a penchant for “setting up a different kitchen” and that the international community needs to guard against this.   

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