What is OBOR???

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 What is OBOR
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 Planet Earth Biggest project
 Brainchild of Xi Jinping…Proposed In 2013….boost international trade
by improving connectivity and physical infrastructure.
 It is also called Belt and Road Initiative, the Belt and Road and “New
Silk Road”.
 It has been compared to America’s postwar reconstruction after WWII
through Marshal Plan however even the current extent of OBOR is
seven times larger than Marshal Plan
 Dimensions of OBOR
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 It has attracted nearly 70 countries and international and inter-region
organizations
 MOUs signed with more than 68 countries across Asia. Africa and
Europe
 Investment, loans and grants of over $200 billion
 It has already championed a number of achievements
 More than 50 Chinese companies are investing
 More than 17000 OBOR projects since 2013 in over 50 countries
 Dimensions of OBOR
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 418km rail link with Laos
 A 3000km high speed rail(HSR) line from South-West Asia to Singapore
 USD62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
 5 billion Colombo Port City Project in Sri Lanka
 5 billion Jakarta-Bandung high speed rail project
 A freight train service linking China and Europe
 Promises of more than one trillion dollars in infrastructure investment
 Tool to overcome poverty and terrorism
 OBOR is the cornerstone of an emerging world order
 Dimensions of OBOR
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 The “Silk Road Economic Belt” focuses on China to Europe through Central
Asia and Russia; China to the Middle East through Central Asia; and bringing
together China and South-East Asia and South Asia and the Indian Ocean.
 The “The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” focuses on using Chinese coastal
ports to link China with Europe through the South Asia Sea and the Indian
Ocean and connecting China with the Sourthen Pacific Ocean through the
South China Sea.
 The imagined routes cover more than 60 countries and regions , currently
accounting for some 30 percent of global GDP and more than 35 percent of
the world’s merchandise trade.
 OBOR and String of Pearls:
Dragon Claw
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 Foe Chinese Energy Security Diversification:
 Setting up of ports in Northern Seabed in friendly countries like
 Gwadar
 Pasni
 Colombo Sri-Lanka
 Chittagong
 Sittwe
 Hambantota
 For surveillance in Bay of Bangal
 Naval base in Myanmar
 Protecting SLOC
 Responding to Rebalancing, Pivot to Asia and Indian Ocean Regime
OBOR and String of Pearls:
Dragon Claw

OBOR and String of Pearls:
Dragon Claw
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OBOR and String of Pearls:
Dragon Claw
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OBOR and String of Pearls:
Dragon Claw
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 OBOR as an Idea
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 OBOR was decided to be constructed in three phases according to the
proposal given in the 13th Five Year Plan in the Central Committee of
Communist Party of China (CPC) which was held in the fifth Plenary
Meeting of the 18th Congress at Beijing in November
 Goals of OBOR
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 To actively participate in global economic governance and supply of
public goods to improve the institutional voice of global economic
governance, and to built a broad community of interests.
 To enhance the strategic layout by promoting the two-way opening:
promotion of One belt One Road along with pragmatic cooperation in
various fields of mutual benefits with the OBOR countries and regions:
 1. promotion of international cooperation in capacity building and
equipment manufacturing at home and abroad
 2. to create a landscape od opening up of land and sea routes by opening
up to both the East and West.
 Themes of OBOR
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 Opening up to the East and the West :
 If compared with China - ASEAN Trans - Asian Railway , Bangladesh -
China - India - Myanmar ( BCIM ) Corridor , and Qinghai - Tibet Railway ,
and the distance between Kashgar to Gwadar is taken into account
Xinjiang is much closer to the Indian Ocean than to Beijing .
 Gwadar port in Pakistan , Hambantota port in Sri Lanka , Chittagong Port
in Bangladesh and the Kyaukpyu Port Myanmar and the CPEC , China
wants to enter Two Oceans Era.
 With the completion of OBOR , China's frontier provinces , Xinjiang , Tibet
and Mongolia will become China's new hinterland and central plains .
 Themes of OBOR
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 To Compete with Trans - Pacific Partnership
 The economic alliance of OBOR constitutes a larger space for China to
survive by balancing the US - led Trans - Atlantic alliance and the Trans
- Pacific containment against China
 Institutional Discourse :
 China wants to raise Chinese voice in global governance
 It wants to carve an economic as well as cultural belt .
 China has no say in the WB , ADB as compared to the US and it wants to reverse this
tide .
 initiative is the manifestation of the same thinking .
 To revive and energise the ideological and cultural sphere in the world .
 Themes of OBOR
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 Civilizational Belt along OBOP
 Alexander the Great
 Buddhism
 Gandhara Civilization
 Great Tang Dynasty
 Prosperous Silk Road
 Mongol Invasion
 China is opening up itself again
 Themes of OBOR
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New Belt of Civilizations :
 Integration of
 Eurasian
 Tartar
 Turkish
 Persian
 Indo Islamic
 Arabian
 Proximity of OBOR to
Indian Ocean
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 " Whoever controls Indian ocean controls Asia . This ocean is key to
seven seas . In century the destiny of the world will be decided in these
waters . " ( Alfred Thayer Naval Strategist )
 Important Facts Indian Ocean :
 Home to international border trade route navigation
 Contains 1/3rd of world population
 Proximity of OBOR to
Indian Ocean
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 36 littoral states
 3rd largest ocean
 Contains 20 % of Oceanic area
 Sometimes called " Maritime Silk Road "
 Linkage between Middle East and Rising Asia
 Home to most important sea lanes of communication
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 Proximity of OBOR to
Indian Ocean
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 According to Journal of Indian Ocean Region :
 80 % of World Sea Trade in Oil
 40 % pass through Strait of Hormuz ( 17 million barrel per day )
 8pc pass through Bab ul Mandeeb
 World's armed conflicts are centered in the region
 Rising great power competition between India and China , China and
USA
 Energy Securitization
 Potential nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan
 Proximity of OBOR to
Indian Ocean
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 According to Journal of Indian Ocean Region :
 US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan
 Religious militancy and Terrorism ( GWOT )
 Annual Silk Route Trade from Hormuz to Malacca is of 18 trillion USD .
 Proximity of OBOR to
Indian Ocean
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 Robert Kaplan Views this region as :
 This region would define " Central stage for century global politics "
 Energy Security , Geo - politics and Geo - strategic and Geo - economics
are converging in the region
 Petroleum traffic is routed through this area
 Hormuz + Bab ul Mandeb + Malaca = " Blanket of Troubles "
 Proximity of OBOR to
Pacific Ocean
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 " The future of the politics will be decided in Asia , not in Afghanistan
or Iraq , and the US will be right at the center of the action . " -H .
Clinton
 Pacific Ocean :
 Home to Obama - led US Pivot ( the rebalancing initiative ) to Asia
Pacific .... according to this plan by 2020 , 60pc of the US naval firepower
is to be shifted to the Pacific war theatre .... and idea originally
conceived by Leon Panetta .
 Proximity of OBOR to
Pacific Ocean
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 " Center Stage of global politics is shifting form Europe to Pacific region
" ...... owing to China and India's economic growth and BRICS ' rise .
 US views India as a balancer against China in its rebalancing strategy .
 Proximity of OBOR to
Pacific Ocean
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 US pursues " Containing the peaceful rise of China " fearing for its
global supremacy .
 Chinese territorial disputes with regional countries in the Pacific has
been fuelled and exacerbated by US but now the tide is shifting in
Chinese favour .
 Japanese break - up with policy of Passivity .... Remilitarization after 70
years .
 Proximity of OBOR to
Pacific Ocean
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 Bilateral trade in the Pacific regions exceeds 600 billion US Dollars
 China is largest creditor of USA
 China perceives all security centric initiatives by US as a policy to "
Chinese Containment or derail Chinese peaceful rise . "
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 OBOR: Political Economy in
Pacific Asia
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 " US is a Pacific Power and we are here to stay " said ex . POTUS
Obama.
 Geo - political significance of Pacific Asia :
 Home to the most important sea lanes of communication ( SLOC )
 Proximity with Rising China
 Spans from Indian sub - continent to West Coast of America Three most
important straits ; Malacca , Malaysia and Singapore are located in this
region
 OBOR: Political Economy in
Pacific Asia
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 US and its allies especially Japan , India and Australia ( so - called
Quad) are trying to encircle China .
 US growing interest in ASEAN
 19th century Europe , 20th Century America and century Asia ....
prominence of global supremacy
 Contains important Islands like Solomon Islands , Marshal Islands and
US Trusteeship .
OBOR: Politics of Conflict
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OBOR: Politics of Conflict

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 Assignment Questions
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 Examine China's Strategic Vision behind BRI also know as
OBOR ? .............. CSS 2019
 How the US is trying to keep its dominant position in Asia Pacific and
what is China's response to it ? .......... CSS 2018
 Critically Examine China's strategic vision behind OBOR ? ........ CSS
2017