Kolkata - lone Indian link in China's mega Maritime Silk Road

Kolkata was the lone Indian port to figure in the final blueprint of China's ambitious Maritime Silk Road (MSR) project.
Inspired by the historic 2,000-year-old Maritime Silk Route, Kolkata was shown on the map released today as part of the MSR.
The eastern port formed part of China's strategic initiative, partly serving landlocked Nepal and Bhutan.
The MSR is connected to Colombo port in Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean while the China-Pakistan corridor passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Bangladesh-China-India -Myanmar (BCIM) corridor are "closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative, and therefore require closer cooperation and greater progress," said a document released at the Boao Forum for Asia in China's Hainan island.

India is taking part in the BCIM but is silent on MSR due to strategic concerns over Chinese domination in the Indian Ocean. China says it is in talks with India on cooperation relating to South Asia.
Referred to as the 'Belt and Road' initiative, the Silk Road projects for which China announced a USD 40 billion fund run through Asia, Europe and Africa, connecting the East Asian economic circle with Europe while encompassing countries along the route with huge potential for economic development.

The MSR is designed to link China's coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China's coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other.

On land, the initiative will focus on jointly building a new Eurasian Land Bridge and developing economic corridors along the China-Mongolia-Russia, China-Central Asia-West Asia and China-Indochina Peninsula routes by taking advantage of international transport linkages while relying on core cities along the Belt and Road and using key economic industrial parks as cooperation platforms.
At sea, the initiative will focus on jointly building smooth, secure and efficient transport routes connecting major sea ports along the Belt and Road, the document said.
The countries taking part in the initiative will need to improve the region's infrastructure and put in place a secure and efficient network of land, sea and air passages, lift their connectivity to a higher level, further enhance trade and investment facilitation, establish a network of free trade areas that meet high standards, maintain closer economic ties, and deepen political trust, it said.

"We should jointly advance the construction of cross-border optical cables and other communications trunk line networks, improve international communication connectivity, and create an Information Silk Road.
"We should build bilateral cross-border optical cable networks at a quicker pace, plan transcontinental submarine optical cable projects, and improve spatial (satellite) information passageways to expand information exchanges and cooperation," the document said.