India seems to be considering joining the United States-led Blue Dot Network (BDN), which was officially declared on 4th November 2019 at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok, Thailand. Led by the U.S, Japan, and Australia, the BDN is a multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to assemble governments, private sector entities, and civil society for the promotion of high-quality, trusted standards in global infrastructure development.
Key Aspects of the Blue Dot Network
The main objective of the BDN is to become a globally recognized evaluation and certification system for substantial structures like roads, ports, and bridges, with special attention to the Indo-Pacific region. The guiding factors for grading different infrastructure projects under this system will be debt, environmental standards, and labor standards.
It’s also important to note that BDN will extend to any citizen-centric country where the populace wants to assess such developmental projects. Interestingly, this initiative seems to carry an underlying agenda of countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Contrary to the BRI, however, the BDN does not promise public funds or loans for the projects.
BDN: A Globally Recognized Seal of Approval
The BDN aims to function as a globally accepted endorsement for major infrastructure projects. This will assure people that the projects are sustainable and non-exploitative. As subjects under discussion, India has not yet joined China’s BRI and as of 2019, the investment made by China in BRI projects across various countries surpassed US$90 billion.
Instead of mimicking China’s spending scale, the U.S, through the Blue Dot Network, argues that the quality of investments in infrastructure carries the same weight as the volume of money spent. This indicates that the new Blue Dot Network is a part of the U.S’s strategy to discourage developing nations in the Asia-Pacific region from relying on Chinese funds for infrastructure.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious project that emphasises connectivity and cooperation among several countries spread across the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Launched in 2013, it involves the construction of roadways, railways, maritime ports, power grids, oil and gas pipelines, and other related infrastructure projects.
The BRI is divided into two main components: the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The former is land-based and aims to connect China with Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. On the contrary, the latter is sea-based and intends to link China’s southern coast to the Mediterranean, Africa, South-East Asia, and Central Asia.