At Qingdao SCO Summit, India refuses to back China's Belt and Road project

India on Sunday refused to back China's multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Project. India was the only country among the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which refused to endorse China's ambitious BRI project.

In a declaration issued at the end of the two-day SCO event in Qingdao, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had reaffirmed their support for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China but India's name was not mentioned in it.

During his address at the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a veiled reference to the BRI had said that any mega connectivity project must respect the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the countries and assured India's full support to initiatives which ensures "inclusivity".

Earlier, Modi on day two of the 2018 SCO Summit was received by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the official welcome ceremony in Qingdao.

This was India's first-ever meeting of the Council as a full member of SCO.

(With PTI Inputs)