BRI: Central Asia and India
Since its inception in 2013, One Belt and One Road Initiative (BRI) succeeded to change the economic outlook of double landlocked geographies of Central Asian Republics (CARs) in terms of investment, infrastructural development, greater regional connectivity, immense socio-economic integration and last but not the least, poverty eradication. China has been pouring substantial funds to transform macro-economies of the CARs which are now breaking the orbit of natural disadvantages.
The recent unexpected turmoil in Kazakhstan has rattled policy makers of Beijing because it is the birthplace of BRI and has even high stakes in the foreign policy of China. Moreover, China-Iran strategic partnership spoiled Indian outreach to CARs which is now in search of new means and justifications to form a strategic partnership with all the CARs.
Kazakhstan has a critical transit role in China’s pivot to Europe. For Central Asia, BRI projects look highly promising, allowing regional countries to increase connectivity, expand regional trade and modernize their transport infrastructure. Moreover, the BRI is the successful model to deliver public goods, promote global connectivity and portray itself as a responsible stakeholder.
According to the latest data (January 2022), under the flagship project of BRI since 2013, China has injected $17 billion in Kazakhstan, $4 billion each in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and $710 million in Tajikistan, with minerals, energy, industrial parks becoming the main directions of cooperation in helping the region achieve industrialization. Overall Chinese investment in Kazakhstan has reached $33 billion.
China’s cooperation with the CARs is creating vast opportunities under the flagship project of BRI which has increasingly become an important booster turning the region into a major trade hub connecting the East and the West.
In addition to this, the trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries increased from $460 million to $46.34 billion, an increase of 100 times since 1992. Chinese-sponsored projects such as transportation networks, customs procedures and e-commerce platforms have further increased inflow of imports & exports between China and CARs.
President Xi during the recent virtual summit marking the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the five Central Asian countries praised the great achievements between China and the regional countries while highlighting the core progress in the multilateral cooperation in the region.
President Xi highlighted that both parties have a common pursuit of development due to which the two-way trade and investment has enhanced over a hundred times while several big projects of strategic significance successfully completed, including the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline, the China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway and the China-Tajikistan Expressway.
In this connection, China’s focus in the BRI cooperation in the region has shifted from large infrastructure projects to helping Central Asian economies, particularly Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, toward industrialization and sustainable growth.
In Kyrgyzstan, China Road & Bridge Corporation and Bishkek Municipal Infrastructure Construction Authority signed a commercial contract for the local road network improvement project (Phase II) on September 17, 2020.
The Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) also has long participated in the regional development. It attaches great importance to developing the Central Asian market under the close guidelines of the BRI and has established permanent offices in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia in the Central Asian region.
The energy company has successfully implemented 39 BRI projects in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan by means of investment and contracting, among which 24 have been completed and 15 are under construction, according to the company.
In the past 10 years, Central Asian countries have become major logistics hubs for China and the West, with around 80 percent of the China-Europe freight trains passing through Kazakhstan. Furthermore, noteworthy achievements have been made in regional cooperation, more service-oriented cooperation would be the focus in the future.
President Xi Jinping put forward five proposals to magnify the exemplary role of good neighborly friendship, to build a cooperation belt for high-quality development, to strengthen the shield for defending peace, to build a family with diverse interactions and to protect the global village that enjoys peace and development.
To conclude, the five Central Asian countries share a border of more than 3,300 kilometers with China. Today, China has become one of the most important trade and investment partners of the five countries.
A large number of major projects involving transportation, agriculture, water conservation, electric power, textile, machinery, manufacturing and other fields have been pursued in these countries.
Right from the beginning, CARs have been experiencing the US strategic encroachment on the plea of a new power vacuum to fill. In recent years, the US has increased its input in the region, in terms of military deployment and sponsored color revolution into Central Asia, trying to disrupt the region to achieve the strategic attempt to contain China and Russia at the same time, but these tactics could not achieve any success. The US dissemination propaganda to instigate China-Russia “competition” in Central Asia is another failed attempt.
It seems that after its strategic defeat in Afghanistan, India is now in search of new comfort zones. Most recently, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a virtual summit with leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Modi and the five leaders agreed to set up another joint working group to develop Chabahar port in Iran to provide sea access to landlocked countries.
India is keen to make Chabahar, Iran’s closest sea link to the Indian Ocean, some 80km (50 miles) away across the border in Pakistan which Pakistan has been building with Chinese investment. India recently committed up to $500m for the development of Chabahar port along with associated roads and rail lines.
India also has provided a $450m credit line to Uzbekistan for developing roads, a sewerage system and the information technology sector. In 2020, India announced a $1bn credit to five Central Asian countries to pursue priority projects in connectivity, energy, IT and healthcare. Thus India is trying to contain China’s presence in CARs and pledges to make investment in these countries.
According to reliable diplomatic sources President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will be visiting Pakistan in March this year. Policy makers of Pakistan should chalk out a comprehensive road-map for the further strengthening of bilateral relations with all the CARs, especially Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Pakistan-Uzbekistan trans-regional railway project, Pakistan-Kazakhstan QTTA protocol, dream gas pipeline TAPI, CASA-1000 and energy exports from other Central Asian countries should be further streamlined and implemented as soon as possible.
In this connection, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) may be further connected with all the Central Asian countries through mega projects of transportation, blue economy, virtual connectivity and, above all, befitting joint ventures.
Economic prosperity is always anti-riot and pro-development and BRI stands for positivity, productivity and participatory orientations. BRI would be a giant step towards materializing Euro-Asian century in the days to come.
