India has strongly opposed China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at the United Nations (UN) forum. However, when Indian diplomat Priyanka Sohoni was registering objections against this controversial project of China, her mic suddenly went off. During this, UN Under-Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin was sitting in front of the Indian diplomat. Liu is a former Vice Foreign Minister of China.
Let us tell you that the Belt and Road Initiative is an ambitious project of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The BRI aims to increase China’s influence and connect Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe through a network of land and sea routes. China has made its economic slave by giving loans to many African countries including Sri Lanka, Laos, Pakistan through BRI. However, China’s real objective is to capture the world’s global trade route through this project.
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The incident of Indian diplomat switching off the mic happened during the United Nations Sustainable Transport Conference hosted by China. The conference was organized from 14 to 16 October. The sudden mic shutdown of the Indian diplomat during the Chinese protest created a panic and took several minutes to fix. Even the video of the next speaker started on the screen but it was stopped by the UN Under-Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin, the former Deputy Foreign Minister of China.
According to PTI, Zhenmin urged Priyanka Sohni, Indian diplomat and second secretary at the Indian embassy here, to continue with her speech. After the sound system was restored in the conference room, Zhenmin said, “Dear participants, we are sorry.” We were facing some technical issues and started the video of the next speaker. For this I am sorry and asked Sohni to resume his speech. You are lucky… you are welcome again. Thereafter the Indian diplomat continued his speech without any interruption.
In her address, Priyanka Sohni said that we share the aspiration of the international community to increase physical connectivity and we believe that this will bring wider economic benefits for all in an equitable and balanced manner. There is some mention of BRI in this conference. Here I would like to say that as far as China’s BRI is concerned, we have been disproportionately affected by it. Its inclusion in the so-called China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infringes on India’s sovereignty.
The Indian diplomat said that no country can support an initiative that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity. Before a few speakers from Sohni, a Pakistani diplomat heaped praises on the BRI and CPEC and called it crucial for the region. At the same time, after the speech of the Indian diplomat, Chinese Transport Minister Li Xiopeng, while responding to the criticism made by Sohni, said that I would like to apologize for the technical glitch when the Indian representative was speaking.
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