Serious reservations about OBOR: Arun Jaitley

Citing sovereignty issues, Union Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said India has “serious reservations” about China’s massive infrastructure initiative One Belt One Road ( OBOR) that aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

“I have no hesitation in saying that we have serious reservations about it because of sovereignty issues. I don’t want to get into it at this stage but there are issues,” Jaitley said at the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Yokohama, Japan. His statement comes ahead of China’s mega Silk Route summit next week. India is unlikely to attend the meet.

“I think connectivity in principle is a good idea but on the particular proposal I think there are several other collateral issues and this is not really the forum for me to go into all this,” Jaitley said.

India has flagged concerns on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key project of the initiative, as it runs through Pakistanoccupied Kashmir. At the event, Pakistan Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar praised the initiative. “We strongly support OBOR. Pakistan is a part of it and very much promotes the idea,” he said.

On the US seeking to tighten rules of H-1B visa programme, Jaitley said India has not felt any impact. He added that companies in developed countries may experience sluggish growth if such protectionist tendencies persist. About uncertainty around the Trans Pacific Partnership, with the exit of US, the minister said trade finds ways to move forward and no force can stop it.