Benito Z. Swu
The Belt and the Road Project is an ambitious practical project that was announced by the Chinese Government in 2013. This project is all about trade and investment to the North of China, reaching out to Eurasia, including a link to India via Myanmar. It is also being called as The New Silk Road Economic Belt. Equally ambitious and practical is its other component, the Maritime Silk Road Project. It begins from the south of the Chinese landmass via the South China sea to South East Asia, and then traversing across the Indian ocean by reaching out to Africa and Europe.
With the political will, grit, and business ingenuity, as always with the Chinese, this initiative will not only expand the Chinese economic sphere of influence, but could very well and more crucially play an important role in the “global economic recovery”. The Chinese are clear and rightly confident that this will happen as there will be better allocation of resources and investment in the Asian region in infrastructure, transport, maritime cooperation, resources, and energy.The seriousness of the Chinese Government in implementing this project is evident in the manner in which border provinces are being made responsible in leading the initiatives for the project to fructify. Case in point is Shenzhen city of Guangdong province, a fishing village which has today been converted into a modern mega-city. It is easy to see the truth in their belief that the Maritime Silk Road Project will enhance economic and people to people relations on the Road, which will further enable them to pursue their own structural transformation. This enthusiasm for the Maritime Silk Road Project is a reflection of an economic imperative that is driving China to promote the Belt and the Road. China is aware that her economy is undergoing a structural change, from one that was export and investment-led, labor intensive and manufacturing driven, economic one. This awareness for the need of a structural change came to the fore following the global financial crisis in the late 2000s.
The Silk Road Belt will be a conduit for land-based projects and building of infrastructure such as road and rail-lines with partnering countries along the routes, while the Maritime Silk Road would be a way to build a route for the rerouting and export of Chinese capital and consumer goods. The point to note here is that, India figures high in the Chinese list of priorities. China is keen to promote collaboration of the Indian private sector with their own advanced firms in the private and the public sectors. As such, China reckons that India’s participation in the Silk Road Project, and increased Chinese investment in infrastructure projects in India will ease the major trade deficits that exists between the two countries.
That said, maybe Chinese autocracy allows them to be more pragmatic, decisive, and visionary than us. But we have to understand that China’s Belt and Road Project is the result of a structural change influenced by her booming economy and has less to do, if not nothing, with geopolitics as is easily, with a narrow view, assumed by some from amongst us here in India. Actually, India, very rightly, harps on Pakistan always being Kashmir-centric, leaving not much room for any developments on many other fronts, but simultaneously when it comes to her eastern neighbor, India commits the same sin of suspecting China of always having a geostrategic-centric perspective, hardly leaving room for progress on other fronts. There are some commentators in India who are of the view that this Belt and road project represents a major strategic initiative by China, and therefore constitutes a challenge of a geopolitical kind. This view does not hold water as it does not take into consideration the reality that India’s neighbors, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and even Nepal have all, willingly and eagerly wanted and rightly agreed to partner with China in projects of different hues and infrastructure developments. Again, it is no secret that it is in the interest of the Western powers that India and China remains at loggerheads, and hence interpret Chinese engagement in its near-neighborhood to be akin to an assertion of its status as a political and economic power.
It is very transparent that there is even more potential in addressing aspects of the economic ties in even more substantial terms than what has been arrived at, if India, for once, can look to the logic of cooperating and thinking alike with China. Definitely, there will be even more avenues that can be explored to leverage India’s advantages in the tertiary sector and Chinese strengths in capital investments for what can only be a win-win deal. It will only be India’s undoing in isolating herself from the Chinese initiatives, which is going to roll on what-so-ever. India should not allow her democracy to victimize herself by not co-operating with the Chinese Belt and Road Project, which by all accounts is going to have a continental impact.
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“Today, with the ‘Look East’ policy of the Government of India, the North East is no more looked upon as an isolated geographic entity. From being an economic and political liability, there is a real possibility of the North East region turning into a land of opportunities. Insurgency in various parts of the North East region is acting as an inhibiting factor at the moment. However, there is a growing realization among the younger and educated generation that the process of economic developments and liberation cannot become a hostage to political struggles.”
This above passage is an extraction from the speech delivered by the then Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, way back in Jan 18, 2006, at the seminar on “The North East as a Regional Market & Economic Zone; Going beyond the Look East Policy” at the Zonal council hall. It was unfortunate that the Central Government of the time could not carry forward the said “Look East” initiative as a policy in its true meaning, but the sentiments of our then CM rings so true today, nearly a decade after he made that speech. We Nagas are indeed blessed to have him today in his role as our Godfather. It will be nothing short of tragic if we fail to read the times, to rally behind him, to trust and obey, to sacrifice if need be and when called upon, as he charts our destiny for the good of the whole, and as a race of God fearing people.
