Chinese Leader to Pledge $46 Billion for Projects in Pakistan

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Chinese Leader to Pledge $46 Billion for Projects in Pakistan

During a two day visit to Pakistan next week, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to finalize a $46 billion deal which will jumpstart Pakistani infrastructure projects and strengthen ties between the two nations.

According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, President Xi will visit on Monday and Tuesday, and plans to cement several multi-billion dollar agreements. If the deal goes through, Chinese will invest $34 billion in energy contracts and $12 billion in infrastructure projects.

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The move is likely to worry US officials. As tensions rise between Washington and Beijing over the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea, the US has expressed concerns about the growing influence of China in the region. Stronger ties with China’s neighbor to the west will likely increase those concerns.

But Pakistani officials think that a Chinese partnership will prove beneficial.

"China treats us as a friend, an ally, a partner and above all an equal – not how the Americans and others do," Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Pakistani parliament’s defense committee said, according to Reuters.

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The projects will focus on the construction of a roads and railways which would strengthen trade along the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor. That trade route has grown by $6 billion in the last eight years, and improved infrastructure will allow further that growth.

The deal could provide China with alternative trade options, should tensions in the South China Sea escalate further.

During his trip, President Xi is also expected to discuss terrorism concerns in relation to Muslim separatists in China’s western Xinjiang region and militants in Pakistan’s east. Instability in either region could threaten the trade route.

"One of China’s top priorities on this trip will be to discuss Xinjiang," a Western diplomat in Beijing told Reuters. "China is very worried about the security situation there."

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Islamabad is also expected to purchase eight Chinese submarines, worth between $4 billion and $5 billion, which could be based at Pakistan’s Gwadar port, at the western end of the Economic Corridor. If officiated, that deal could also lead to the construction of a Chinese refueling station in Gwadar, and would allow Beijing’s navy more direct access to the Indian Ocean.

Pakistan has also been exploring partnership options with Russia.

"We have asked the Russian energy minister to have the Russian oil and gas exploration companies to visit Pakistan and look at the oil exploration in our country," Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistan’s petroleum and natural resources minister, told Sputnik. "So, hopefully, they will visit us within the next couple of months."


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150416/1020982751.html#ixzz3XUOzFRIl

 

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Chinese president to visit Pakistan, hammer out $46-billion deal
REUTERS | MATEEN HAIDER

Chinese President Xi Jinping.— AFP/File
ISLAMABAD: Chinese President Xi Jinping will launch energy and infrastructure projects worth $46 billion on a visit to Pakistan next week as China cements links with its old ally and generates opportunities for firms hit by slack growth at home.

Also being finalised is a long-discussed plan to sell Pakistan eight Chinese submarines. The deal, worth between $4 billion and $5 billion, according to media reports, may be among those signed on the trip.

Know more: Pakistan to buy eight submarines from China.

Xi will visit next Monday and Tuesday, Pakistan's foreign office said.

“China treats us as a friend, an ally, a partner and above all an equal - not how the Americans and others do,” said Mushahid Hussain Syed, chairman of the parliament's defence committee.

Pakistan and China often boast of being “iron brothers” and two-way trade grew to $10 billion last year from $4 billion in 2007, Pakistani data shows.

Xi's trip is expected to focus on a Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, a planned $46-billion network of roads, railways and energy projects linking Pakistan's deepwater Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea with China's far-western Xinjiang region.

It would shorten the route for China's energy imports, bypassing the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, a bottleneck at risk of blockade in wartime.

If the submarine deal is signed, China may also offer Pakistan concessions on building a refuelling and mechanical station in Gwadar, a defence analyst said.

China's own submarines could use the station to extend their range in the Indian Ocean.

“China is thinking in terms of a maritime silk road now, something to connect the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean,” said a Pakistani defence official, who declined to be identified.

For Pakistan, the corridor is a cheap way to develop its violence-plagued and poverty-stricken Balochistan province, home to Gwadar.

China has promised to invest about $34 billion in energy projects and nearly $12 billion in infrastructure.

Xi is also likely to raise fears that Muslim separatists from Xinjiang are linking up with Pakistani militants, and he could also push for closer efforts for a more stable Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping will be visiting Pakistan from April 20 to April 21 on a two-day state visit.

"I can confirm that the Chinese president will be visiting Pakistan from April 20 to 21," FO spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said during a weekly media briefing in Pakistan.

She said a number of Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) and agreements would be signed during Xi's visit to Pakistan.

Pakistan has been looking forward to the Chinese leader’s visit for the last ten months, but at least two scheduled visits have been postponed during the period.

Take a look: Chinese president likely to visit in April

The Chinese president was expected to attend the Pakistan Day parade on March 23, according to an earlier plan.

Another visit to Pakistan, in September 2014, had been postponed because of security concerns.

President Xi is expected to address a joint session of parliament on the second day of his visit, which may be summoned by President Mamnoon Hussain as close as a day before the address, a National Assembly secretariat spokesperson had earlier told Dawn. “However, no date has been mentioned by the government,” he had said.