India’s pragmatic foreign policy toward China’s BRI and AIIB : struggling for relative and absolute gains

Wu, Fuzuo

Abstract

India’s foreign policy toward China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is pragmatic. On the one hand, India has not only raised its apprehensions about the BRI but also taken measures to compete with it. On the other, India has joined China in the establishment of AIIB. The motivations behind India’s competition with China’s BRI stem from its concerns about the relative gains China might accrue through the BRI in its own backyards—South Asia and the Indian Ocean. In contrast, India’s full cooperation with China on AIIB has been driven by the absolute gains it can obtain through such cooperation, that is, not only considerable economic benefits but also an enhanced status in the international system.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jul 24, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Sep 4, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Contemporary China
• Print ISSN: 1067-0564
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9400
• Publisher: Routledge
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 123
• Pages: 354-368
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2019.1645486
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2019.1645486
• Related Public URLs: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjcc20/current
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This article has been reprinted in: Zhao, S (ed.), China’s Global Reach : The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Volume II, published on 7th April 2020 by Routledge, ISBN: 9780367460983 (hardback); 9781003029397 (ebook)