The Trap of Friendship: China ‘justifies’ passage of CPEC through PoK!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Completely ignoring India’s repeated and serious objections to the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Beijing has termed the mega-project as a “testament of friendship” with Islamabad.
Addressing a CPEC celebration event in Islamabad on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping made this remark, despite India’s objections that the CPEC passes through an area that the Indian Parliament has resolved to take back from Pakistan.
Curiously, China’s comments came a day after Italy announced the withdrawal by December 2023 from the China-sponsored Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), of which CPEC is the flagship project. Recently, many countries, conscious of debt traps as in Sri Lanka, are having second thoughts on whether to go ahead with Chinese overtures.
China will continue to work with its all-weather ally Pakistan to take their strategic ties to new heights, President Xi Jinping said as the two countries celebrated the 10th anniversary of the launch of their ambitious infrastructure projects in the South Asian country for regional connectivity.
In his congratulatory message to the “Decade of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’ (CPEC)” celebration, Xi said the USD 60 billion CPEC infrastructure program is an “important pioneering project” of the BRI.
It connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who is on a three-day visit to Pakistan, also attended the event.
“China will work with Pakistan to aim for high-standard, sustainable, and livelihood-enhancing outcomes and further build the CPEC into an exemplary project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation,” Xi said.
“Since its launch in 2013, China and Pakistan have been advancing CPEC under the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and have achieved a number of early harvests,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency of China.
President Xi, also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the CPEC added new impetus to the economic and social development of Pakistan and laid a good foundation for regional connectivity and integration.
The project is a “vivid testament to the all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan,” and provides an important underpinning for building an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, he said.
Stressing that China and Pakistan will continue to improve overall planning and expand and deepen cooperation, Xi said no matter how the international landscape may change, China will always stand firmly with Pakistan.
“China and Pakistan will continue to work hand in hand and forge ahead in solidarity to carry forward the ironclad friendship, coordinate development and security,” Xi said.
The Chinese leader said the two countries will continue to “pursue the cooperation of higher standards, broader scope and greater depth, and take the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership to new heights, so as to make an even greater contribution to peace and prosperity in the two countries and the broader region.”
The key agreement for the CPEC project was inked in 2013 but it was formally launched when President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan in 2015.
The BRI aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa, and Europe with a network of land and sea routes. It is seen as an attempt by China to further its influence abroad with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the world.
The initiative also led to allegations of smaller countries reeling under mounting Chinese debt after Sri Lanka gave its Hambantota port in a debt swap to China in 2017 on a 99-year lease.
