Belt-Road initiative and its strategic implications on India-China relations (2013-2022)

The continuous trend of the rise of China and India, has taken their competition to regional fields and both governments consider the seat of superior power in Asia the prelude for turning into a Global Power. While the publication that has been done on Sino-Indian relations mostly focus on its relations to great powers specially The US, the new wave of regional Sino-Indian competition in the era of "Major connectivity initiatives" has not received the ample attention. This article uses the descriptive-explanatory method to analyze the Sino-Indian relations outside of systemic level of power and under the influence of Belt and road Initiative (BRI) and series of balancing measures taken by India on regional level. To answer the question of "what was the impact of BRI on Sino-Indian relations between 2013-2022? This article hypothesize that BRI has posed serious threat for India and has made it to take balancing measures. It is argued that India in response to alleged violation of its sovereignty on Kashmir Region, geopolitical containment by China and concerns over a looming China centric new order has used its old policy change in Kashmir, official opposition to BRI and offering regional initiatives countering the BRI as India’s balancing measures against BRI. The findings of this article, while confirming the relative compatibility of BRI and Walt's balance of threat theory, introduce new windows for reconstructing the validity of this theory.