Cooperation best way forward for Beijing, Delhi: Chinese Daily

Linking India's "Spice Route" and "Mausam" projects with China's "One Belt and One Road" initiative could provide a way to mitigate New Delhi's suspicions over cooperating with Beijing to create tangible benefits for both sides and achieve maritime objectives, a leading English daily of China said on Friday.

Chinese Ambassador to India Le Yucheng recently remarked that "the One Belt and One Road initiatives can also be linked with India's Spice Route and Mausam projects", Global Times reported, adding that it might provide a blueprint for cooperation between New Delhi and Beijing and help India to set suspicions aside.

The op-ed piece headlined "Cooperation best route for Beijing and Delhi over maritime objectives" was based on an interview with Wang Dehua, head of the Institute for the Southern and Central Asian Studies, the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies.

It said there was no easy way of persuading a rising power in China's neighbourhood to recognise that its mega project is not seeking for influence or striving for hegemony.

Pointing out that India's Mausam and Spice Route initiatives were launched to re-establish India's ancient maritime routes with its ancient trading partners, the daily added that it was clear that India will focus on its maritime strategy in the future, "which will go hand in hand with its large scale of infrastructure construction".

"The recent outreach of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Indian Ocean states of Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka is widely regarded as a move to boost India's maritime influence," it said.

The report added that New Delhi was also planning to develop some new projects in the ocean, including Project Seabird, "an ambitious naval infrastructure programme".

It added that the prevailing belief that such Indian projects were adopted to counter China's influence in the region was futile.

"We should not see it that way. Though India is ambivalent about China's initiatives, its strategy is far from confronting China. India clearly understands that if it turns against Beijing's invitation to jointly build the 'One Belt and One Road' programme, it will be more difficult to restore the connection with China in the future," the report said.

The daily suggested that the best option for India and China was "to put aside disputes, and to resolve divergences through cooperation, instead of keeping raising eyebrows at each other and endlessly debating the challenges".

Pointing out the benefits India could reap as a result of cooperation with China, it said if shipping from both sides could go through each other's waters, India could transport mineral resources and oil to the South China Sea and the Far East more easily.

"Some even suggest it is possible for India to ship its oil to Northeast China while China transmits electricity to the country through its western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as an exchange."

The daily suggested that China should send messages to India that "China will give sufficient consideration to the reasonable interests and concerns of all parties, adhere to open regionalism, and will not target any third party", as the Chinese ambassador to India suggested.