Authors: Irfan Khan and Rafaqat Khalil*
The United States and India, the two strategic allies pose with impunity, a strong opposition to CPEC. Both countries have been launching a media campaign diplomatically and strategically against CPEC for the last few years. In May 2015, Prime Minister Modi readily visited China to persuade the Chinese government to abandon this project by maintain that the CPEC route was passing through the disputed territory of Gilgit-Baltistan. During the G-20 summit at Hangzhou in China in September 2016, PM Modi had expressed India’s concerns over the CPEC in his bilateral meeting with Chinese President, holding that the two countries needed to be “sensitive” to each other’s strategic interests. In October 2017, the Trump administration told the Senate Armed Services Committee that CPEC was passing through a disputed territory. Similarly, a senior Trump administration official has recently also remarked that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) “is a made in China, made for China” initiative. US consideration of India as a strategic ally is its diplomatic blunder, as India have a proactive, functional and workable relationships with Russia.
China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), currently in progress is a mega strategic and economic based project. It is aimed to bilateral exchange of trade, technology and energy between two forever strategic partners China and Pakistan. Even though, democratic power transition from Pakistan Muslim League-N(PMLN) to Pakistan Tehreek Insaf(PTI) on July 2018, CPEC was remain unaffected and the later considered it the extreme need of time. As, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in various conferences and interviews argued to emulate China in various institutions.
However, some detractor, impediment elements has bellyache with the project. November 2018 attack on Chinese Consulate Karachi was just an attempt to put a rift in the two partners friendship. But Pakistan security forces made it failed and the diplomatic wisdom of the both countries understand circumstances very well.
In December 2108, Indian newspapers and American newspaper New York Time made a hype that, a military dimension is also installed within the canvas of CPEC. However, both Pakistan foreign ministry and China president had issued outright statements that there are no such ties. Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman, during his last week’s press briefing, made it just clear that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had no military dimensions. “The CPEC is a bilateral economic project, which is not against any country”. He was commenting on a report published in a leading US newspaper alleging that the CPEC was not about economy and trade but had military dimensions as well. No doubt, there are strong military ties between China and Pakistan. The CPEC, however, has nothing to do with these ties. Both friends forever have been enjoying close diplomatic, strategic and military relations for decades, independent of, and prior to, the CPEC project. China and Pakistan, being two sovereign states, have the right to foster strong economic and military relations in accordance with their national interests.
Some disgruntled experts claimed that, the CPEC is not tantamount economically to both China and Pakistan and the later will suffer debts burdens. As Last week, Chinese embassy in Pakistan also refuted another media report which claimed that Pakistan would pay $40 billion to china in 20 years in shape of repayments of debt and dividends on Chinese investment under flagship CPEC. The embassy issued a statement that the Chinese government provided concessional loans of $5.874 billion for Pakistan’s transportation infrastructure projects, with a composite interest rate of around 2 per cent in a repayment period of 20-25 years. The embassy also clarified that all the CPEC energy projects are investments in nature and the companies are responsible for their own profits and losses and repayments of loan. But it is not more than just propaganda. The project equally will bring economic prosperity and it is a grassroot for the functional and workable relationships to both countries.
Pakistan and China always have been understanding and dealing US-India jealousy, security challenges and troubled environment in Afghanistan through their vast diplomatic wisdoms. The CPEC is promoting both nation and a day is about to come when Pakistan and China both will lead third world countries.
*Rafaqat Khalil, M.Phil Scholar at Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan.
