Thread by @d_jaishankar

Amid some of the breathless #BeltandRoadForum coverage that we'll see over the next few days, a few things to keep in mind... #BeltandRoad #BeltandRoadInitiative

First, reminder of India's official objections at the last Belt and Road Forum in May 2017. Essentially, connectivity projects must be:

- financially sustainable
- transparent
- environmentally responsible
- locally beneficial
- respectful of sovereignty

mea.gov.in/media-briefing…

Some of those principles have begun to be reflected in other countries' official positions. See, for example, this: state.gov/secretary/rema…

Also, in academic analysis. This is a good study by @CNASdc, with a few prominent (and some lesser known) case studies of BRI:
cnas.org/publications/r…

For some 3rd party resources on BRI trends, I'd point you to MERICS: merics.org/en/bri-tracker

And also the Rhodium Group: rhg.com/research-topic…

And finally, I'd urge reporters to take a hard look at the available data on Chinese financing and investment flows, rather than the grand pronouncements.

For example, how many people realise that Chinese FDI outflows in 2018 to Bangladesh ($3.6 bn) or India ($3.1 bn) were a lot more than to Pakistan ($330 million)? chinapower.csis.org/china-foreign-…

Or that the stock of Japanese overseas investment remains higher than China's (although China has certainly narrowed the gap). wsj.com/articles/japan…