CPEC 2.0: How trilateral summit raises concerns for India

India Today

Amid high-level meetings with Indian leaders, China’s foreign minister joined Pakistan and Afghanistan to push for extending CPEC—China’s flagship Belt and Road project- into Kabul.

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00:00After conducting high-level meetings with Indian officials including Prime Minister Modi,

00:04External Affairs Minister S. Jai Shankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval,

00:08Chinese Foreign Minister Wong Yeh went to Kabul and then Islamabad.

00:11The goal was a trilateral meeting between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan

00:14to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan.

00:18CPEC, a flagship project of Xi Jinping's and a part of the Belt and Roads Initiative,

00:22aims to expand China's global footprint through infrastructural developments

00:26like power plants, highways, railway lines and ports.

00:28However, this affects India adversely. How?

00:30The CPEC runs from China's Xinjiang province to Gwadar in Pakistan's Balochistan

00:34while crossing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

00:37This raises concerns for India at a variety of levels.

00:40The Gwadar port gives China undisputed access to the Arabian Sea,

00:43essentially controlling shipping routes running through there.

00:46It also gives China room to increase military movement in the region,

00:48which is very concerning for India considering the border tensions

00:51we have faced with both China and Pakistan in the past.

00:54Environmentally, the project is a disaster.

00:55Fragile mountain ecosystems are adversely affected due to this,

00:58increasing the risk of landslides, water scarcity and ecological degradation.

01:02Several communities in the Balochistan province have also been affected due to this,

01:06with most of them getting minimal benefits from the project.

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