CPEC is not just for Pakistan: Chinese newspaper

[Shahzaz ud din]

CPEC is not just for Pakistan: Chinese newspaper
By APP
Published: March 10, 2018
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PHOTO:REUTERS

BEIJING: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), will create new business opportunities for not only Pakistan but also other countries in South Asia and adjacent areas as it reshapes the regional economic landscape by shortening trade routes.

The B&R Initiative has made headlines across South Asia, where leaders must ponder the future of regional economic integration in a bid to pursue the maximisation of their local interests.

Some countries in the region have thus witnessed frequent high-level bilateral exchanges, according to an article published in Chinese newspaper ‘Global Times’ on Friday.




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The image of Pakistan has improved as the country gives full support to the B&R Initiative, announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping for the shared prosperity of mankind.

As an example, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the first high-level foreign dignitary to be received by KP Sharma Oli after Oli was sworn in as the prime minister of Nepal this month.

Nepal’s prime minister usually makes his first visit to India after being inaugurated, so the invitation to Pakistan is seen as a sign that the two countries may further strengthen economic cooperation.

Although the CPEC faces challenges, the economic corridor has become a reality with the first shipment of Chinese goods through the Gwadar Port in southwest Pakistan in 2016.

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The CPEC, a flagship project of the B&R Initiative, helps Pakistan occupy an important position in the trade route linking China and the West.

While Nepal extends an olive branch to Pakistan to enhance cooperation, Afghanistan has also shown an interest in being involved in the CPEC projects. The B&R Initiative is not designed as a political instrument to enhance China’s economic ties with the participants, but as an open platform for all of them to strengthen communication among themselves.

Active exchanges in various areas are brightening the picture for South Asian economies. It seems the B&R Initiative has played an increasing role in promoting economic integration. Countries that have given a cool response to the B&R Initiative may be bystanders to South Asia’s rejuvenation. This should be recognised by India.


Read more: Belt and Road Initiative , China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

 

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India’s derision of CPEC

The only option for India is to resolve its disputes with Pakistan through dialogue and join CPEC to benefit from its economic fruits rather than opposing it

India, which has been opposed to China since it received a drubbing from it in the 1962 Sino-Indian War, spares no stone unturned to denigrate it.

Pakistan was never accepted as a sovereign state by India and every machination in the Chanakyan book on guile and deceit has been tried out to subjugate Pakistan. India had believed that following the severance of its eastern wing in 1971, West Pakistan too would collapse but that did not happen. On the contrary Pakistan prospered and came out of the nuclear closet in 1998.

The commencement of the global war on terror by the US and coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2001, provided India a ray of hope to disparage its western neighbour and it started a propaganda campaign that Pakistan was an epicentre of terrorism in the region.

To divert world attention towards Pakistan and presenting it as a sponsor of terrorism, India even went to the extent of staging a false flag operation in the shape of an attack on its own parliament building and blaming Pakistan for it. Using the attack as a plea, India amassed its troops menacingly on the Pakistan border. The US refused to be side-tracked from its mission in Afghanistan and forced India to withdraw its troops.

After the going got tough for the US and its allies in Afghanistan, Washington turned on Pakistan and entered into a strategic alliance with India.

China’s emergence as an economic power was ringing alarm bells in US State Department and it was willing to prop up India as a bulwark to check China. Indians jumped on the opportunity as they had two clear objectives. Firstly to influence the US and European powers that Pakistan be penalised to undermine its nuclear capability and give a clear edge to India in South Asia. Secondly, by trying to equate the indigenous freedom struggle of the Kashmiris as terrorism; India wanted that the western countries should not support the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

After becoming a strategic partner of the US and having been declared by the US as a lynchpin of its Asia pivot policy, aimed at containing rising China, India received a boost. In this backdrop, in the changed post-withdrawal scenario (from Afghanistan), India had become further encouraged with the US tilt in favour of India over Pakistan in South Asia.

If India believes that the US will continue to provide it all the required strategic military support to make it a major world power and prefer it over Pakistan in South Asia even if it refuses to cooperate with the US in its Asia pivot strategy to limit Chinese and Russian influence in Asia, it is mistaken

The 2015 visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Islamabad and the launch of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) threw cold water on Indian plans to destabilise Pakistan as CPEC would transform Pakistan’s economy in a major way.

The projected economic benefits of CPEC to Pakistan and its enhanced strategic partnership with China, forced Indian propaganda campaigners to target CPEC along with diplomatically isolating Pakistan to deny CPEC economic and strategic advantages to Pakistan and China. Instead of choosing to join this mega project to reap related economic benefits for its people, India opted to belittling it.

A multi-pronged strategy was evolved by India. Firstly to vilify CPEC, secondly to sabotage it and thirdly to develop the Iranian port of Chabahar port and link it with Afghanistan to offer an alternate to Afghanistan as well as Central Asian States in lieu of Gwadar Port.

India fails to take into cognisance that ultimately economies of scale will decide about the success of the ports, as distance from Mumbai to Chabahar is 1800 kilometers, and from Chabahar to Kabul it is 1851kilometer, whereas distance from Gwadar to Kabul is 450 kilometer.

If India believes that the US will continue to provide it all the required strategic military support to make it a major world power and prefer it over Pakistan in South Asia even if it refuses to cooperate with the US in its Asia pivot strategy to limit Chinese and Russian influence in Asia, it is mistaken. Foreign relations are based on ethnocentrism. The US realises that India continues to pursue its independent foreign policy, as it did by not supporting the US against Russia over Ukraine crises, in its sanctions against Iran and in the Syrian conflict.

In the long run such a one sided game cannot be sustained. Even if India does become a part of the Asia pivot policy of the US, for peace in Afghanistan the US will continue to maintain good relations with Pakistan as well and India will not be able to isolate Pakistan. This is more so when China and Pakistan are now deeply connected through the CPEC project and Russia is aspiring to build good relations with Pakistan to cooperate on Afghanistan.

Besides Russia, Iran and UK, more and more countries are signing up for CPEC thus India will fail in deriding CPEC. The only option for India is to resolve its outstanding disputes with Pakistan through dialogue and join the CPEC to reap connected economic benefits rather than opposing it.

The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host, who has authored six books on current affairs, including three on China

Published in Daily Times, March 10th 2018.