Extending CPEC

Recently, US President Trump offered to buy Greenland, an Arctic Island with harsh living conditions, from Denmark. The news seemed like a joke and even the president of Denmark took a day to realize that President Trump was not joking, before Denmark refused to sell the Island. The new strategic importance of Greenland has not been to clear to many people, ironically not even to Denmark. Last week Russia launched the world's first floating nuclear power plant because Russia is preparing to establish a new shipping route across the Arctic, which would be the shortest shipping distance from China/Japan to Europe.

With global warming increasing, the Arctic Polar Ice is melting. This allows special ships to cut a shipping route across the ice. Russia will be the owner of the new shipping route and is setting up the required facilities; the US is rushing to establish it’s ports. This new shipping route will cut into the revenue of many countries including Egypt, the UAE, South Africa, Turkey etc. Pakistan can use this opportunity to entice these nations to invest in the extension of the CPEC trade route to Africa via Oman, UAE, South Africa and then to Eritrea in Africa. As all the trade will have to pass through CPEC, Pakistan could earn additional revenue from African trade.

Engr Shahryar Khan Baseer

Peshawar