India has said that it will study the US President Joe Biden’s ‘Build Back Better World’ (B3W) global infrastructure initiative—an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—announced at the just concluded G7 summit, and might engage with it at a later stage.

“On the specific question of joining 'Build Back Better World', I can confirm that relevant agencies of the Government of India will study them and engage with them probably at a later stage," P Harish, a senior official at the Ministry of External Affairs has said.

The B3W plan

, proposed to be led by major democracies, will provide financial and technological help to meet over $40 trillion infrastructure needs “in the low- and middle-income countries”, which are hit hard by the outbreak of the COVID-19.

This initiative, seen as a potential jolt to Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet BRI, is also expected to create local employment.

What is China's BRI/OBOR: The BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR), was unveiled in 2013 by Chinese President Jinping.

According to the ChinaPower project, it aims to strengthen China’s connectivity with the world by combining old and new infrastructure projects, covering an expansive geographic scope. It includes efforts to strengthen hard infrastructure, soft infrastructure, and cultural ties to strengthen China’s economic and security interests. As of October 2019, the plan touches some 4.6 billion people of 138 countries with a combined Gross Domestic Product of $29 trillion.

“In pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative, we should focus on the fundamental issue of development, release the growth potential of various countries and achieve economic integration and interconnected development and deliver benefits to all,” President Jinping had noted at the first Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in May 2017.

But China has been accused of playing ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ under its connectivity project. This refers to offering projects/infrastructure loans on terms that at times become too difficult for the receiving countries to repay, eventually compelling them to accept political or economic concessions. China’s BRI has resulted in several such unsustainable deals, which further Beijing’s geostrategic interests by increasing its global presence and influence.

But the major influence that China has on the global supply chain was felt like never before during the outbreak of the ongoing pandemic.

According to Harvard Business Review of September-October 2020, the supply and demand shocks and the US-China trade war forced manufacturers everywhere to reassess their supply chains and triggered a rise in economic nationalism — Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

The supply shock that started in China in February 2020 and the demand shock that followed as the global economy shut down exposed vulnerabilities in the production strategies and supply chains of firms just about everywhere.

They faced pressure to increase domestic production, and reduce their dependence on risky sources like China, and rethink strategies of just-in-time replenishment, the review suggests.

Is China just aiming to achieve economic integration with BRI? India's Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat thinks China is a bigger security threat for India than Pakistan.

"We know we have challenges on both sides (west and north), but we have to obviously address our larger neighbour (China) with some degree of concern," General Rawat, India's first CDS, recently told WION in an interview.

No one can forget the clash between Indian and Chinese forces along the line of actual control (LAC) in June 2020 when 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)

First Published:Jun 14, 2021 5:36 PM IST