The South Asian Direction of “OBOR” Strategy: Geopolitical Pattern, Indian Difficulties and Breakthrough Path

Abstract

Currently, the world pattern has been suffering the collision of global problems one after another, which makes the global governance more closely linked with the international order. In this context, the great power strategy is still affected by the inertial thinking formed during the cold war. What’s worse, the occurrence of various changes and crisis brings the internal and external development strategy of a country into dilemma. As an important move to explore the means of global governance and seek the deepened economic and security cooperation with countries along the route, “OBOR” is a deterministic choice made by Chinese government under the conditions of a rapidly changing world pattern and a rise in the uncertainty of the surrounding environment. China is the largest neighboring country of South Asia. Although a huge potential market demand for South Asia means broad cooperation space, the cooperation between China and South Asia is faced with more obstacles compared to Southeast Asia, Central Asia and other regions. It is with the misunderstanding and contrasting points of view based on “geopolitical imagination” that result in the missing of cooperation opportunities. With the background of OBOR initiative, the strategic position, the breadth as well as the depth of cooperation in South Asia not only depend on the geopolitical structure itself and its position in the regional and world pattern, but also depends on China’s geopolitical structure, China’s strategic position and interest demands in South Asia as well as the interaction between China and South Asian countries. The Indian difficulties of “OBOR” in the South Asian direction, after all, consist in the Sino-Indian relations. The solution of this problem requires the joint efforts of both sides. We have reason to believe that as long as China and India are ready to put efforts and take action to strengthen communication in humanities and seek cooperation in the economic and security field, the “dividends” of cooperation will overflow to the political field and become the lubricant of political trust, which will eventually push forward the development of Sino-Indian bilateral relations.