.
. The sea lines run through several major maritime
.
The “
Belt and Road Initiative” is a Chinese led infrastructure initiative designed to connect Chinese manufacturers and markets with markets across Eurasia. The Initiative is primarily based on the
ancient “silk road” which stretched from Italy in the West, to Southern China in the East. The
“Belt” element of the project consists of
overland routes through what was the original Silk Road and Russia, and the
“Road” element, a series of
shipping routes through which China and other states can move goods.
Many commentators in India believe the String of Pearls ["Road"] plan, together with the
China–Pakistan Economic Corridor and other parts of
China's Belt and Road Initiative under
Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping, is a
threat to India's national security. Such a system would
encircle India and
threaten its power projection, trade, and
potentially territorial integrity. Furthermore, China's support for
India's traditional enemy of Pakistan and its
Gwadar Port is viewed as a threat, compounded by fears that China may develop an
overseas naval military base in Gwadar, which could allow China to conduct
expeditionary warfare in the Indian Ocean Region. From the east, the
deep-water port of Kyaukpyu is also viewed with a similar concern. The first comprehensive academic analyses of Chinese plan and its security implications for New Delhi was undertaken in
February 2008 by an active-duty Indian naval officer. Antedating
China's anti-piracy naval deployment in the
Indian Ocean beginning in
December 2008, and the ensuing acquisition of its first overseas military in
Djibouti in
August 2017, his analysis predicting China's "permanent military presence" in the Indian Ocean is viewed by Indian policymakers as prescient. Accordingly, India has since been making moves of various types to counter the perceived threat.
The emergence of the
String of Pearls is indicative of
China's growing geopolitical influence through
concerted efforts to increase access to ports and airfields, expand and modernise
military forces, and foster stronger
diplomatic relationships with trading partners. [Predictably] The Chinese government insists that China's burgeoning naval strategy is entirely peaceful and is only for the protection of regional trade interests.
Chinese Communist Party general secretaries Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have both asserted that China will never seek
hegemony in foreign relations. A 2013 analysis by
The Economist also found the Chinese moves to be commercial in nature. Although it has been claimed that China's actions are creating a
security dilemma between China and India in the
Indian Ocean, that has been questioned by some analysts, who point to China's fundamental strategic vulnerabilities.
