Lack of transparency in deals under BRI between Chinese companies and local governments has also raised alarm. Xi Jinping on Friday tried to rope in New Delhi to his Belt and Road Initiative with vows to prevent debt risks

After India boycotted the BRI summit for the second time in a row, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday tried to rope in New Delhi to his Belt and Road Initiative with vows to prevent debt risks.

Xi made the remarks at the launch of the second BRI summit in Beijing on Friday, which aims to rediscover the ancient Silk Road to connect Asia to Europe and Africa involving massive investments in maritime, road and rail projects.

India maintained that the project violates its sovereignty and would push the countries into a debt trap. Many nations across Asia, Europe and Africa, too, have expressed similar concern.

“Belt and Road is not an exclusive club,” Xi told the gathering of 37 world leaders. “We also need to ensure commercial and fiscal sustainability of all projects so that they will achieve the intended goals as planned.”

On Thursday, Chinese finance minister Liu Kun said that the country would present to the forum a debt sustainability framework to “prevent the debt risks”.

Lack of transparency in deals under BRI between Chinese companies and local governments has also raised alarm. “Everything should be done in a transparent way and we should have zero tolerance for corruption,” Xi said. China will also promote “green” development, he said, amid warnings that some of the massive projects are causing environmental damage in Asia.

“President Xi Jinping spoke of cleaning up BRI, vowed zero tolerance for corruption and called for adoption of ‘internationally acceptable standards’ in the tendering process. Going by its past record, these promises are hard to believe. China has repeatedly made public pledges, which it has then violated,” Amit Bhandari, fellow at the Energy and Environment Studies, Gateway House (a Mumbai-based think tank), told ET.

“However, the increasing criticism of BRI validates India’s stand of not being a part of this project from the beginning. Overcapacity, high costs and high interest rates can push the host countries into a debt trap — as has happened with Sri Lanka, and is happening with Pakistan, both recipients of Chinese investments. Pakistan is facing a balance of payments crisis and has approached the IMF for yet another bailout, partly caused by BRI investments under CPEC. Sri Lanka had to hand over a port to a Chinese company in lieu of debt,” Bhandari said.