The planned 1,800-mile China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is expected to connect China’s western-most region of Xinjiang with the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly expressed his concerns over the project, as it will pass through the Kashmir region, a territory disputed by New Delhi and Islamabad, Sputnik reported.
“The economic corridor between China and Pakistan provides regional connectivity which is lacking in our region. Ultimately, India will benefit from it as well. When the connectivity in the region is improved, India will benefit from it economically: from trade, communications and improved infrastructure,” Ambassador of Pakistan to Russia Zaheer Janjua said.
In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping singed agreements to invest $46 billion in Pakistani infrastructure, with a focus on building the CPEC.
Pakistan is already part of China’s Silk Road Economic Belt project, which was initiated by Xi in 2013 to boost cooperation between China and a number of Central Asian nations.
Partnership Project for Russia
The Chinese Silk Road Economic Belt is not a competitor, but a partnership project for Russia, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said recently.
“The project of the the Silk Road belt is in no way a competitor for us, to some extent it is a partnership project, which we have agreed with our Chinese counterparts. We have agreed that we will try to combine the possibilities of that the project, as well as the opportunities that are open due our common market with Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia [members of the Eurasian Economic Union], “ Medvedev said.
Medvedev expressed hope that the project would be beneficial for every member state of the EEU.
During the July Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Russia’s Ufa, Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cheng Guoping said that integration between China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and the EEU would give a positive impulse to the economic cooperation between all the SCO member states.
The SCO is an international alliance comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
