File photo of Qinghai-Tibet Railway

China’s newly constructed highway to a town bording Nepal is seen by Indian experts as a deterrent against their country. Chinese expert pointed out that India is always disgusted when neighboring countries try to get closer to China.

The Tibet highway between Xigaze Airport and central Xigaze City officially opened to the public on Sept. 15. It is the first real highway in Tibet, said Tibet’s news portal Tibet Daily.

According to the Global Times, the new road runs parallel with the Xigaze-Lhasa Railway and connects the border town of Zhangmu with Lhasa, the capital city of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

Citing a Chinese expert, the Global Times said that the road will enable China to forge a route into South Asia.

“Although the infrastructure connectivity between China and Nepal is intended to boost regional development and not for military purposes, the move will still probably irritate India,” said Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.

India is always disgusted when neighboring countries attempt to get closer to China, Zhao explained.

However, Indian expert Srikanth Kondapalli, who teaches East Asian and Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Russian news agency Sputnik “the fact is that if China makes inroads into Nepal through road and rail links then it will come at an arms’ distance with India.”

“Nepal's support for the Chinese One Belt One Road project has been one of the strategic failures for India as the government could not convince Nepal to opt out the Chinese initiative,” the expert added.

China has been stepping efforts to improve road connectivity between Tibet and Nepal while speeding up plans to build a railway line connecting to Nepal’s border after KP Sharma Oli, former Nepalese Prime Minister, signed a Transit Trade Treaty with Beijing last year during his tenure, Indian news channel NDTV reported on Monday.