Pak Flag Or The IS Flag?

OBOR's binding terms perplex some in Pakistan, put India on careful watch, open up a vista of geo-political transformation

- Pranay Sharma And Lola Nayar

AS the dust settles over India’s judicial triumph at the Hague, New Delhi will derive satisfac­tion from what it has achie­ved—that too, in a rule­bound international setting. But there is a parallel geopolitical circumstance where India may be haunted by a sense of not being in the game at all: the giant, transnational web that China calls One Belt One Road (OBOR) and its proxi­mate segment, the China Pakistan Eco­nomic Corridor (CPEC).

It’s natural that India looks at this phe­nomenon with a mixture of chagrin and defiance—this week it stayed aloof from the grand OBOR jamboree in Beijing. Some see in the Chinese initiative to exp­and its own area of influence in the Asia­Pacific region a parallel to what the Americans had done after WWII—prop up several Asian economies, like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

“China’s One Road One Belt is indeed a parallel to the American onslaught on globalisation. Now that the US is pulling out of various global pacts like the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, which was in keeping with its global ambition, the Chinese have defacto replaced the US. The aggressiveness of the Chinese presi­dent and the withdrawal of the American administration from engineering the whole world have worked in China’s fa­vour. This is going to affect India as it deals with issues on its borders with Pakistan,” says Biswajit Dhar, profes­sor of economics at JNU.

Surprisingly, there are mixed feelings even in the country that CPEC may transform completely: Pakistan. As exhaustive details of the CPEC blue­ print became public last week, revealed by Kara­chi’s Dawn newspaper in an exclusive, the full im­mensity of China’s plan became clear.