Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Even Pakistan’s “all-weather friend” China has dumped its South Asian vassal state. Beijing, itself facing an economic crisis, has refused to further expand cooperation with a nearly bankrupt Islamabad on various sectors under the now fledgling China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
According to the media reports on Tuesday, China has refused to further expand cooperation with Pakistan in the areas of energy, water management, and climate change under the USD 62 billion CPEC, signaling a strain in the ‘ironclad’ friendship between the two allies.
Cash-strapped Pakistan also gave up its opposition to setting up a new imported coal-fired power plant in Gwadar in Balochistan province and agreed to a number of Chinese demands to address Beijing’s concerns, The Express Tribune newspaper reported, citing the signed minutes of the 11th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of the CPEC.
The JCC is a strategic decision-making body of the CPEC and its 11th meeting was held virtually on October 27, 2022, on the insistence of the then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government that wanted to showcase some progress.
Interestingly, the minutes of this JCC meeting were signed only on July 31, 2023, during the visit of Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, underlining the difference of opinions on both sides that led to such a huge delay in reaching a consensus, the report said.
The final draft of the meeting Pakistan shared with Beijing and the final minutes signed by both sides were also different in many ways, the report said.
China’s disagreement to further expand cooperation in areas of energy, water management, and climate change under the CPEC underscores “the challenges that both the sides are facing in deepening the economic ties,” it said.
The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of China’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI, which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), was, until recently, seen as a Chinese attempt to expand its influence overseas with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the world.
The CPEC comprised several infrastructure and other projects under construction throughout Pakistan since 2013, but work has remained sluggish on many fronts.
The details of the final minutes of the 11th JCC showed that China did not agree to a host of measures that Pakistan had proposed in the areas of energy, water management, climate change, and tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, PoK, and the coastal areas.
China excluded cooperation in the areas of cross-border tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, PoK, and cooperation for the promotion of coastal tourism from the final minutes, and did not agree to Islamabad’s proposal for the inclusion of water resources management and climate change and urban infrastructure development in the CPEC framework, or even for setting up a new joint working group on this issue. Besides, China excluded the issue of financial challenges being faced by the power companies.
Beijing also did not agree to a proposal to include a 500kv transmission line from Hub to Gwadar to link the seaport city with the national grid in the CPEC framework and refused to conduct joint studies for the future development of Thar coal blocks, including the development of mega power parks and power evacuation infrastructure, for meeting Pakistan’s energy needs from indigenous resources, conversion of coal into other products for domestic demand as well as exports.
Similarly, there was no mention of the South-North gas pipeline project in the final minutes. The draft minutes mentioned the examination of a feasibility study and Chinese cooperation for the purpose.
Pakistan had proposed Chinese participation in a strategic underground gas storage project but this also found no mention.
Islamabad’s proposed participation of China in the national seismic study for sedimentary areas with Chinese equipment was also shelved.
Other Pakistani proposals that China rejected included joint exploration, development, and marketing of metallic minerals with Chinese technology, and developing a policy framework for coal gasification to fertilizer projects based on Thar coal.
Pakistan has given significant concessions to China for setting up the 300MW Gwadar Power Plant. Although Islamabad wanted to either shelve the project or change its location to Thar to use the local coal. But China disagreed. Islamabad also sought to convert the imported fuel-based Gwadar plant to Thar coal to address energy security and liquidity issues to which China did not agree either.