India’s Pragmatic Foreign Policy toward China’s BRI and AIIB: Struggling for Relative and Absolute Gains

India’s foreign policy toward China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is pragmatic. On the one hand, India has not only raised its apprehensions about the BRI but also taken measures to compete with it. On the other, India has joined China in the establishment of AIIB. The motivations behind India’s competition with China’s BRI stem from its concerns about the relative gains China might accrue through the BRI in its own backyards—South Asia and the Indian Ocean. In contrast, India’s full cooperation with China on AIIB has been driven by the absolute gains it can obtain through such cooperation, that is, not only considerable economic benefits but also an enhanced status in the international system.