Media Framing of the Belt and Road Initiative: A Comparative Analysis of India and Nepal

China’s BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), initiated in 2013, has been a game-changer in global economic realities especially for South Asia. This study examines how the BRI is reported in two countries — India, which takes a stand against the initiative, and Nepal, which supports it. We use CDA and framing theory to analyze the news media across print and digital. In the Indian context, media coverage in general has been critical of BRI: sovereignty issues top but followed by regional security and economic dependency especially on CPEC. But the Nepali press tells a different, sanguine story about the BRI, hailing it as a tremendous opportunity for infrastructural investment and regional integration. The contrast demonstrates the manner in which binary media portrayals contribute to a sense of antipathy or hostility in India and friendship or cooperation with Nepal. The findings of this paper present new insights into how the media framing could shape national policies and public opinion in politically sensitive regions such as South Asia. By comparing two sets of media, India and Nepal, this paper also makes an important theoretical claim: that of mediating the discourses of global initiatives - national interest over any objective role for the media.