Modi's Tightrope Walk On Belt And Road

Modi's Tightrope Walk On Belt And Road

- Ananth Krishnan

One reason why China chose to host the June 9 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Qingdao, a picturesque port of colonial-era buildings and perfectly manicured gardens, is that it is a key stop on Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Eurasia is the heart of the BRI, so for Xi, hosting the SCO in Qingdao was an important platform to push his pet initiative.

The Qingdao summit, however, also happened to be the first of the China and Russia backed grouping to be attended by India as a full member. India and Pakistan were formally included into the six-country grouping, which also includes Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyr gyzstan and Tajikistan, last year.

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this presented a difficult diplomatic balancing act, of conveying India’s vision for the region despite its stated reservations about the BRI.

The prime minister appeared to pull it off. In his address to the SCO—he was the first leader to speak following host Xi’s opening address— Modi offered India’s vision of connectivity, which was, in some respects, at odds with that of China.