‘China wants to enhance ties with Iran through CPEC’

ISLAMABAD: Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong has said that China is looking forward to enhance its cooperation with Iran through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. In an interview with IRNA, he said, if Iran joined the CPEC, then it would be a win-win situation for China and Iran.

Weidong said that China shared very good relations with Iran, adding, "We think that Iran can also be a very important country along the Belt and the Road initiative, so we really look forward to enhance our cooperation with Iran." CPEC is a win-win situation, so we are looking forward to explore the possibilities of cooperation among all the regional countries, the ambassador added.

CPEC could be an energy line from Iran to China in the future, he said, adding, "We can explore such a possibility." The ambassador said there are many projects under the CPEC framework that were being implementing or under-construction in Pakistan. Thereare 16 major projects that are under construction and the Chinese side had already invested more than $13 billion, he added.

"CPEC had created tens of thousands of job opportunities in Pakistan, so we could see that the project could bring a lot of benefits to the Pakistani people," he added. CPEC is a mega project between the two countries under which China would invest $51 billion in Pakistan.

The economic corridor is around 3,000km long, consisting of highways, railways and pipelines that will connect China's Xinjiang province to the Gwadar Port in Pakistan. Iran had shown willingness to become part of CPEC in a meeting between President Hassan Rouhani and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York on the sidelines of the latest session of the UNGA.