To counter China's Silk Road, India is working on Cotton Route

BHUBANESHWAR: India is trying to counter China’s Silk Road Economic Belt strategy with the idea of Cotton Route, to improve diplomatic and economic relations with Indian Ocean Rim countries.

This was one of the key takeaways from a three-day international conference, India and Indian Ocean: Renewing the Maritime Trade and Civilisational Linkages, which ended here on Friday.

Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Manohar Parrikar, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mahesh Sharma attended the conference, and spoke about India's ideas for the region. The event followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius, which highlighted New Delhi’s eagerness to deepen ties with countries in the Indian Ocean region where Beijing is too trying to expand its influence. Through the Silk Road strategy, China is seeking to build an economic belt, covering countries along both the sea path and land path.

"Our strength lies in our belief in nonviolence, but it also has to be displayed by strength,” Defence Minister Parrikar said. "In Sanskrit, there is a saying that it's only the goat that is sacrificed in a yagna, not the lion."

India will be hosting an international fleet review at Visakhapatnam in February 2016, the minister said. He wouldn't comment on whether China would be invited.

According to Parrikar, maritime threats were not always traditional. Somalian pirates were shifting towards India, he warned.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Swaraj stressed on improving maritime security in the region. "The Indian Ocean carries one half of world's container shipments, one-third of the bulk cargo traffic and two-thirds of the oil shipments, though three-fourths of this traffic goes to other regions of the world," she said, adding: "90% of our trade by volume and 90% of our oil imports take place through sea."

Prime Minister Modi has a clear focus on closer trade, economic and cultural ties with Indian Ocean countries, said Petroleum Minister Pradhan, who acted as the de-facto host at the conference.