The global power shift and the Role of Asian Players

The world of globalization has brought enormous veiled opportunities and challenges for the each of the developed, developing and under developed nation in the world. The economic sustenance is the only guarantee of the national prestige in the contemporary inter-state interactions and fundamentally a means of the nation’s survival.

The economic recession and the global suffering are some of the reasons of the centralized economic system that structurally inherent the deprivation of the poor and the exploitation of the raw materials of the under developed nations by the developed one. The lowest rate of remittances against the natural resources of the less developed nations is some of the reasons that seriously undermine the objectives of human prosperity and international development goals.

The mutual progress and the cooperation for the development is indeed the surety of the prosperity that in turn brings enormous opportunities throughout the world, the circulation of wealth and the equal distribution of resources generally provide the maximum chances where the economic freedom would lead to growth and a better life for all. The economic independence subsequently ensures the developing nations to preserve their respective cultural identity and the ethnic characteristics. In the course of the prevailing delicate international economic revival and descending stress on many countries yet strive to materialize their development goals through bilateral and multilateral cooperation for the industrial and economic capacity enhancement.

The current political and economic landscape in the Asia is readily lingering for squiggle a new era of economic revival, bilateral and multilateral security arrangements. The rise of China particularly confers the optimism of development for countries in the region. The objectives of mutual benefit and the cooperation for common interests are some of the features of China’s unique foreign policy and its mounting progress amidst the current economic and political arena puts it on a matchless pace for progressively crossing the regional boundaries where its influence is significantly expanding beyond the regional boundaries and border limitations.

Through the initiative, China allocates billions of dollars for the infrastructural developments that includes building a network of new roads, pipelines, power stations, railway tracks and seaports. The only viable solution for the economic growth viewed as better access and the better trade that increasingly motivates for the enhanced connectivity of the South Asia with Central Asia then Eurasia and the Europe. The $46 billion project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor attempts to linkup the trade routes. Pakistan grasps a crucial position for China in terms of its regional economic and political discourse; China’s strive for inflating its westward influence through the initiatives of One Belt, One Road are the factors that demand the region’s infrastructural development. Pakistan’s Gawadar Port holds a critically enacting place for China’s impersonation as a naval power that significantly enables its increased access of Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, the Sino-Russian partnership leading through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, appears to be committed for the better economic and security arrangements for the Central Asia. China would help to boost the economic progress, industrial and infrastructural developments whereas, Russia to safeguard the region from falling into the hands of extra-regional players and to protect the region’s security against the growing threats of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

To materialize the dreams of enduring peace, progress and the region’s prosperity, the security issues should be addressed swiftly. The political solutions is the only assurance of the enduring peace therefore; all the stakeholders particularly, the countries in the region like China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the Central Asian Republics must play their roles for the economic revival and the peace and stability in Afghanistan. The possible permanent membership of the India and Pakistan in the SCO along with the energy rich Central Asian countries and the economic and military giants like Russia and China is the magnetic means to attract the power to shift from West to the East.

Nasurullah Brohi
Nasurullah Brohi
Nasurullah Brohi works as a Senior Research Associate at the Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad and can be reached at nasurullahsvi(at)outlook.com