: China and Pakistan have rejected a media report
that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s newly elected government wants to
renegotiate the agreements reached under the Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI), with Beijing saying Islamabad’s commitment to President Xi Jinping’s
pet project is “unwavering”.
An article titled ‘Pakistan rethinks its role in Xi’s Belt and Road plan’ by the
UK-based Financial Times on Sunday quoted Prime Minister’s Adviser on
Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production, and Investment Abdul Razak
Dawood as saying that Pakistan “should put everything on hold for a year
so we can get our act together.”
In the article, which created furore as it came hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded his visit to Islamabad,
Dawood was also reported to have said that the “Chinese companies received tax breaks, many breaks and have an undue
advantage in Pakistan; this is one of the things we’re looking at because it’s not fair that Pakistan companies should be
disadvantaged.”
Refuting the article, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing in Beijing Tuesday that during
Wang’s visit, the Pakistani side made it clear that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a p
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“The Pakistan-China relations are unbreakable and Pakistani government’s commitment to CPEC is unwavering,” Geng said and
referred to the denials by the Pakistan government.
The CPEC, a flagship project of the BRI launched in 2015, is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking
China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.
In Islamabad, the Pakistan Foreign Office said Monday that during meetings with Wang, Pakistani leadership conveyed that the
CPEC was a national priority for the government and “Pakistan remains committed to the successful implementation of CPEC.”
It said that there was complete consensus on the future trajectory of the CPEC between Pakistan and China.
“The two sides agreed to work together towards implementation of the ongoing projects and agreed to expand CPEC to new
areas of cooperation including socio-economic development; poverty alleviation, anti-corruption, agricultural cooperation and
industrial development as per the needs and priorities of the government of Pakistan,” the Foreign Office said.
In a separate statement, Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce and Textile said that the FT article is “based on a statement taken out
of context”.
“The statement attributed to the Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Textile (Dawood) have been taken out of context
and distorted. Pakistan-China relations are impregnable and the government’s commitment to the CPEC is unwavering,” the
ministry said.
Pakistan’s former interior Ahsan Iqbal had criticised the incumbent government’s reservations over the CPEC.
While speaking to a TV news channel, he said that any such thoughts over CPEC were disappointing as China trusted Pakistan
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and invested billions of dollars when no one was ready to put in even 10 dollars in the country’s economy.
Prime Minister Khan, who was elected on a platform of anti-corruption and transparency, in the past had criticised jailed former
prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the lack of transparency and corruption in the CPEC projects.
Khan has pledged to publish details of existing CPEC contracts whose details remained closely guarded secrets. He has
established a nine-member committee to evaluate the CPEC projects and the committee is scheduled to meet for the first time
this week, Dawood, who sits on the new committee, was quoted as saying in the FT report.
In Beijing, Geng said Tuesday that the aim of the nine-member committee to review the CPEC projects is to enhance
exchanges with China to accelerate the CPEC and to “deliver more outcomes to the Pakistani people Instead of putting off the
project”.
Significantly, Geng said a third party can join the project, without naming any particular country.
“We think that the CPEC can accept the participation of a third party. I would like to emphasise that the BRI is open, inclusive,
and transparent,” he said.
While briefing the media on Wang’s visit, Geng had said Monday that both sides have decided to extend CPEC to western
areas of Pakistan. Western provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were located along the borders of Afghanistan.
Wang had announced plans to extend the CPEC to Afghanistan during the first trilateral foreign ministers meeting held here in
April this year.
India has protested over the CPEC as it traversed through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
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Apparently, China in a move to address the growing concerns over the viability of CPEC projects now plans to extend it to the
western region to address the concerns of the new government and offered Afghanistan to join the project.
Geng sought to repudiate criticism of the BRI was causing debt trap for smaller countries.
Stating that 130 countries and organisations have signed up for it, he said, “If the BRI was out of the geopolitical considerations
like someone said, it would be faced with risks and challenges, and would cause traps and crisis, I think it would not have been
welcomed, it would not have achieved so much progress and outcomes”.
“We welcome all like-minded countries to take part in the BRI, jointly promote regional connectivity, development, and
prosperity so as to deliver benefits to people of all countries around the world,” he added.
China, Pakistan reject media report that Imran Khan’s govt wants to renegotiate BRI deals
