India’s stance wavering on Belt and Road: China

By Gaurav Sharma

Beijing, Nov 8 (IANS) A day after Russia's envoy to India said Beijing and New Delhi should resolve their differences on the Belt and Road project, China said on Wednesday that New DElhi's stand on it appeared to be wavering.

China again sought to allay India's fears, saying the project, whose key artery goes through that part of Kashmir held by Pakistan, would not change Beijing's "neutral" stand on the issue.

"You and your colleagues asked this question before and it shows that India is quite wavering on this issue of the Belt and Road initiative," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

"I think you must be very clear since the Belt and Road initiative was proposed by President Xi Jinping progress has been made smoothly with strong outcomes."

On Tuesday, Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev said there should be a dialogue between India and China over the issue.

"We will favour China and India coming to some sort of understanding bilaterally for preferred routes, ways and means of communications, of connectivity," he said.

Hua was reacting to question about the envoy's remarks.

"We believe that the Belt and Road initiative will create more room for China's opening up and development. It also presents more opportunities for economic development. And it does not involve territorial disputes."

China has an ambitious plan to connect Asia, Africa and Europe through a maze of roads and waterways.

Some analysts say there is more to it than just economics.

India has opposed the Belt and Road, whose CPEC cuts through Pakistan-controlled Kashmir which New Delhi claims as its own.

India in May skipped a mega conference organised by China solely because of the CPEC.

Hua said China hopes "countries and parties with shared vision will work with us to allow practical cooperation to bring more benefits to our peoples".

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)