To start with, for India such cooperation would greatly improve the chances of
achieving transit to Afghanistan, thus further opening the large Central Asian
markets and a greater access to the region’s abundant natural resources, a long
cherished dream for India (GOI MEA 2012; Government of India Embassy of India
15A somewhat similar step has also been proposed by political analyst Suba Chandran (2012).
18
Kabul 2015). Pakistan would also get huge benefits as a trilateral cooperation on
these lines would either mellow or put an end to the opposition from India as far
as the CPEC is concerned. It would also provide Pakistan an access to the South
East Asian region, a stated objective of the ‘Vision East Asia policy’ of Pakistan
(GOP MOFA 2013b; Dawn 2010). As far as China is concerned, ‘connecting all subregions
in Asia, and between Asia, Europe and Africa’ is seen as a pre-requisite for
the success of the Silk Road Economic Belt (People’s Republic of China National
Development and Reforms Commission 2015). That is, these smaller initiatives
would provide an enabling regional environment for the OBOR project by creating
a greater synergy between two economic corridors in South Asia