India asserted itself as the lone member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) not to endorse communist China’s predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during a virtual summit Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted on Tuesday.
India has distanced itself in the past from BRI promotion initiatives, and has refused to endorse the program at past SCO meetings, creating a roadblock to consensus on a major Chinese foreign policy initiative in a coalition China spearheaded as an attempt to expand its influence in Central Asia.
The SCO is an economic and political coalition of nine countries founded in 2001 in the Chinese city it is named after, including several Central Asian countries as well as Russia and Pakistan. Its ninth member, Iran, received approval for membership on Tuesday. The coalition works to enhance ties among its member nations, many of which maintain actively anti-American foreign policies, both in expanding trade volume and assuring support for one another’s efforts internationally.
China has used the SCO to rival democracy-led international organizations in the past, for example by hosting SCO summits simultaneously with the G-7 Summit or, more recently, using the platform to issue support for Russian leader Vladimir Putin during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The SCO’s rules do not allow members to use organization meetings to discuss issues of bilateral concern among two of its members, a rule that prevents discord given the contentious relationships between several of its members, notably India and its top geopolitical rival, Pakistan. The result of the rule is that the world leaders who attend the meetings offer veiled statements on the bilateral issues without naming any other countries or condemning them, but clearly alluding to ongoing disputes with other SCO members.
Tuesday’s summit was reportedly no different, as Modi used his address to condemn support for terrorism and “double standards” on the subject. According to the Times of India, Modi demanded that SCO members condemn countries who “provide shelter to terrorists” and support cross-border terrorism, an allegation India regularly lobs against Pakistan.
“We need to enhance mutual cooperation in dealing with terror financing as well,” Modi said, a remark that the Times of India interpreted as a reference to the Indian government’s accusations that Pakistan finances jihadist groups who attack India – and China, through the Belt and Road Initiative, finances Pakistan.
Chinese dictator Xi Jinping also appeared to make some criticisms of India’s policies without calling the country out by name. Xi used his address to urge member countries to be “highly vigilant against external attempts to foment a ‘new Cold War’ or camp-based confrontation in our region,” according to the Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times.
“We should truly respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, and firmly support each other’s endeavor for development and rejuvenation,” Xi reportedly continued, according to the propaganda outlet. “We must be highly vigilant against external attempts to foment a new cold war or camp-based confrontation in our region. We must resolutely reject any interference in our internal affairs and the instigation of ‘color revolutions’ by any country under whatever pretext.”
“Color revolution” is a term used for several popular uprisings against pro-Russian governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the 2000s, including the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine, the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia, and the “Tulip Revolution” in Kyrgyzstan. Both Russia and China use the term derisively, as their official stances are that the uprisings were not organic but rather a conspiracy orchestrated by the U.S. government.
The fear of a “new cold war” Xi referred to appeared to be in response to Modi’s visit to the United States in June, where leftist President Joe Biden regaled the Indian leader with a White House state dinner, the highest honor for a visiting head of state, and an address to the U.S. Congress. Modi secured several pivotal defense and trade deals, which analysts noted were likely a joint attempt to counter China’s belligerence in the South China Sea, its repeatedly invasions of the Indian border, and its stranglehold on international supply chains.
The Global Times‘ regime-approved “experts” argued that “Washington is moving to pull over India, trying to dilute the organization’s cohesion,” referring to the SCO, clarifying Xi’s remarks as a direct reference to India.
The Indian delegation to the virtual summit left a greater impression by omission than by its overt statements, however, being the only member nation not to endorse the expansion of the BRI. The other six countries, excluding China itself, issued a separate statement of support for Beijing.
“Reaffirming their support for China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) initiative, the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan and Republic of Uzbekistan note the ongoing work to jointly implement this project, including efforts to link the construction of the Eurasian Economic Union and BRI,” the declaration read. “They spoke in favour of implementing the Roadmap for a gradual increase in the share of national currencies in mutual settlements by the interested member States.”
Xi addressed the BRI in his speech, urging fellow SCO members, “We need to enhance the connection of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with development strategies of various countries and regional cooperation initiatives.”
The BRI is a global project in which China offers impoverished countries predatory loans intended to be used to build infrastructure projects, presumably to rebuild the Ancient Silk Road that connected China to western Europe. The countries use the loan money to pay Chinese companies and import Chinese workers; when they can no longer pay the loans back, China seizes the property they are on, greatly expanding Beijing’s global influence.
The Indian news outlet World Is One News (WION) reported on Tuesday that a major concern India has previously identified with the BRI is the sector that connects China to western Asia: the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The CPEC has experienced major setbacks, for both Pakistan and China, due to the ongoing presence of jihadist terrorism in the region, but has also incensed India due to Pakistan claiming territory for the CPEC that New Delhi asserts is sovereign Indian land.
“The arm of the BRI project that links mainland China to the Arabian Sea runs from Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to Gwadar Port in southwestern Baluchistan in Pakistan,” WION explained. “The project enters Indian territory occupied by Pakistan in Gilgit Baltistan and traverses the entire length of Pakistan from north to south before reaching the Arabian Sea.”
Indian officials have vehemently rejected the BRI in the past.
“To be honest, we have made no secret of our views and our position on BRI is clear and consistent and one that we have conveyed to the authorities concerned,” India’s then-Ambassador to Beijing Vikram Misri told the Global Times in 2019, which no longer appears at the newspaper’s website as of Wednesday. “Above all, connectivity initiatives must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity of nations. No country can participate in an initiative that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
India has joined international operations in the past to offer poor countries alternatives to the BRI