‘CPEC is Chinese vote of confidence on Pakistan’

Islamabad:Initiation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at an economically challenging time for Pakistan is a Chinese vote of confidence to Pakistan, said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairperson, Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator Syed was speaking at a webinar commemorating 70 years of Pak-China friendship organised here by Institute of Regional Studies (IRS). The senator opined that CPEC had already proven to be a success story. He said that Pak-China relations were built on a strong foundation of trust and complementarity of interests.

Commenting on the Sino-US relations, he said that US policy towards China had become more strident despite the change of government in Washington. He specifically referred to the proposed Strategic Competition Bill, which, if passed by the US Congress, would appropriate $300 million annually to counter Chinese global influence. He termed it as “a recipe for a new cold war.”

Masood Khalid, Pakistan’s longest-serving former ambassador to China, gave a comprehensive account of the consistent upward trajectory of the relationship between Pakistan and China. He maintained that the 1960s and 1970s were crucial for cementing the existing level of trust between the two countries.

Mr Khalid argued that Pak-China relationship had acquired even more importance because of the evolving global strategic competition. “The US is trying to prevent its own decline rather than preventing the rise of China because it has already happened,” he added. He further stated that Chinese influence in the region would grow notwithstanding the attempts of the India-US combine to subvert it. He appreciated Beijing for its all-out support to Pakistan in various sectors of its economy. Chinese footprint is there in all the different sectors of Pakistan’s economic development, he said.

Hassan Daud Butt, the CEO of the KP Board of Investment and Trade, stated that Asia had already become the epicentre of global transformation and China was proving to be its leader. He shared that the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative had 56 economic zones in 20 countries, 9 of which were in Pakistan.

Naghmana Hashmi, Pakistan’s former Ambassador to China, shed light on the long history of relations between the two countries since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

She shared that Pakistan was not only the first Muslim country to recognise the PRC but also the first non-communist country that Beijing allowed its national carrier, Pakistan International Airline, to establish an air link with the PRC. She termed the Pak-China relationship as a model for inter-state relations. Ms Hashmi underscored the high level of cooperation between Pakistan and China during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pakistan did not lose any soul to Covid in China, she remarked.

Columnist Hassaan Khawar, who was moderating the discussion, said that seven decades of friendship between the two countries had stood the test of time. Earlier, Nadeem Riyaz, President IRS, presented address of welcome.