China has its Belt and Road; India, Japan have Growth Corridor

INDIA and Japan are collaborating on the transcontinental "Asia-Africa Growth Corridor" (AAGC) which is being seen as a counterbalance to China's "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) initiative. India and Japan believe their initiative is better, and China worries about an overlap.

The AAGC aims to create a transparent intercontinental economic system, as opposed to Chinese business practices in Africa, which Japan pointedly criticises as "unethical" and marked by "unfavourable" financial deals and "substandard goods".

Last month, the Chinese government articulated its stance on the AAGC through its Global Times newspaper, saying that the Indo-Japanese initiative was welcome as long as it and the OBOR did not overlap. India and Japan have not joined the OBOR, preferring to launch their own AAGC, which is essentially a maritime trade route to better integrate South Asia, South-east Asia and East Asia with Africa and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific island groups of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia).