China’s new economic leap to further cement Pak-China friendship: Amb Nong Rong

 

China has achieved a historic leap by exceeding 100-trillion-yuan GDP threshold. This success will have a positive impact on the economic wellbeing of Chinese people as well as its partners especially Pakistan, a country which has witnessed China standing side-by-side during the test of times. 

With the high-quality development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the implementation of the Second Phase Protocol of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, China’s new economic leap will bring a larger market and deeper cooperation potential for Pakistan. 

China will always uphold the principles of international harmony and help Pakistan just like it is giving COVID vaccines to enhance Pakistan’s ability to fight the deadly pandemic. The year 2021 is very important for Pak-China friendship since it marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. 

China will continue to ensure high-quality development of CPEC and advance cooperation in developing Gwadar Port, industrial parks, agriculture, science and technology, assisting Pakistan’s development towards industrialisation, urbanisation, digitisation and agricultural modernisation. Moreover, China will promote bilateral exchanges and cooperation for a better understanding of two cultures.

ISLAMABAD, FEB 4: At the beginning of 2021, there comes encouraging news from China. According to the preliminary calculation of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China’s GDP in 2020 reached 101.6 trillion yuan (around 14.7 trillion USD), increasing by 2.3 percent from 2019. For the first time, China’s GDP exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan threshold, achieving a historic leap.

This leap is significant.

For China, this leap marks a milestone in the journey of Chinese national rejuvenation. The GDP of 100 trillion yuan and per capita GDP of 10,000 USD for the second consecutive year indicates a new height in the overall national strength and people’s living standard. It has laid a solid foundation for China in implementing the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and embarking on a new journey towards fully building a modern socialist country. It has also created ample space for China to follow a new development philosophy and foster a new development paradigm with domestic circulations as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other.

For the world, this leap is a ray of warm sunshine amid economic gloom. The world economy has been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. China is the first and the only major economy to achieve positive growth in 2020, injecting impetus into the global economic recovery. China’s share in the world economy is anticipated to rise to around 17 percent. China’s growing economy will further enhance its potential of foreign trade and investment, strengthen inter-connection and the mutual promotion of the markets of China and the world, and make greater contributions to the improvement of global economic governance, the building of an open world economy and a community with a shared future for mankind.

This leap is hard-won.

This leap is attributed to the wise leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). In the face of the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the turbulent external environment, the CPC has united and led all the Chinese people to respond calmly and rise up to challenges. The CPC Central Committee with President Xi Jinping as its core assessed the situation from the long-term perspective while taking both the domestic and international situations into consideration, coordinated pandemic control and socioeconomic development, and resolutely adopted a series of significant measures. CPC organisations at all levels strictly implemented the decisions and instructions of the CPC Central Committee. The majority of CPC members actively responded to the Party’s call by rushing to the frontline in fighting against the pandemic and played a leading role in every field. The judgment, decision, and action taken by the CPC are decisive in helping China take the lead in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, resuming work and production, and achieving positive economic growth.

This leap is attributed to the unique advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. First, this system guarantees the whole nation acts in a coordinated way. Both in COVID-19 response and economic development, China gives the full play to the initiative of both the central and local governments. The local governments cooperate with the central government and the central government assists the local governments. At local level, governments also support each other under the coordination of the central government. Second, the socialist system with Chinese characteristics ensures that we concentrate efforts on major tasks. Faced with arduous development tasks, China, following the belief that “good steel is used for the cutting edge”, concentrates on the most important tasks with the best resources, and has achieved progress in poverty alleviation, research and development of vaccines, and technological innovation. Third, the socialist system with Chinese characteristics ensures that we make cohesive planning to achieve consistent development. 2020 was the last year of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan. China maintained its strategic focus, overcame the impact of COVID-19, stuck to its goals, and completed the development tasks specified in the 13th Five-Year Plan on schedule. These advantages are the institutional basis for the resilience of China’s economy.

This leap is attributed to China’s adherence to reform and opening up. China is not swayed by the historical counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism, and does not fear the threat of decoupling, supply disruption or sanctions. We uphold that development quality and market vitality should be enhanced by deepening reform and opening up. China has taken the initiative to maintain the stability of the global supply, industrial and value chains. With both the goods trade and the actual use of foreign investment growing against the trend, China has maintained its status as the largest trading nation and has become the largest host country for foreign direct investment (FDI). Besides, the “Belt and Road Initiative” continued to advance steadily, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was successfully signed, and the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment completed negotiations on schedule. Reform and opening up is the source of China’s economic vitality.

This leap benefits China-Pakistan cooperation.

The new leap of China’s economy is the result of China’s adherence to self-reliance and opening-up, the hard work of the Chinese people, as well as the support and contributions of friends from various countries including Pakistan. Therefore, the expansion of China’s economic volume will not only benefit the Chinese people, but also have a positive impact on the international community, especially creating more development opportunities for Pakistan, China’s all-weather strategic cooperative partner. With the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the implementation of the Second Phase Protocol of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, China’s new economic leap will bring a larger market and deeper cooperation potential for Pakistan, and lays a more solid material foundation for upgrading China-Pakistan practical cooperation.

China’s good economic performance can boost the determination and confidence of the two countries to join hands in fighting the pandemic. At the just-concluded World Economic Forum “Davos Agenda” dialogue, President Xi Jinping stated that China will continue to take an active part in international cooperation on COVID-19 and continue to implement a win-win strategy of opening up. China is still facing a tight anti-pandemic situation, and there is a severe supply and demand gap in vaccine production. Even so, China, as a responsible major country in the international community, and a reliable partner who withstands the test in the face of danger, will do its best to make safe and effective Chinese vaccines available and affordable for the Pakistani people, and to boost Pakistan’s economy to full recovery at an early date.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. China will take this opportunity to speed up the high-quality development of CPEC. The two sides are in close communication and serious preparation for the upcoming 10th meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee. In the next stage, the two countries will take well-targeted steps in developing Gwadar Port, industrial parks, agriculture, science and technology, assisting Pakistan’s development towards industrialisation, urbanisation, digitisation and agricultural modernisation. We also welcome friends from all walks of life in Pakistan to get a more comprehensive understanding of contemporary China, promote bilateral exchanges and cooperation, and give new momentum to this time-tested friendship.

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COURTESY cpecinfo.com

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China Cultural Center in Pakistan to host online programs for celebration of Chinese New Year

 

ADNAN HAMEED  Working on Promoting Soft Image of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, FEB 2 - This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relation between China and Pakistan, to celebrate this significant event and in conjunction with upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, China Cultural Center in Pakistan will host a series of cultural activities to celebrate online the Happy Chinese New Year in Pakistan.

The Spring Festival, which is also known as Chinese New Year, according to the lunar calendar, is held by the Chinese as their most important festival and has a history of over 4,000 years. It is an occasion on which people pray for a good harvest, celebrate and enjoy themselves.

Nowadays, the festival is celebrated from the evening of the last day of the 12th lunar month to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the new lunar year.

During the Spring Festival, Han Chinese and many of China's other ethnic groups hold a variety of distinctive celebrations in order to honor deities and ancestors, symbolize the replacing of the old with the new, and to welcome the New Year and pray for a bumper harvest. People do everything in their power to spend Chinese New Year with their families so that they can welcome the New Year and the happiness that they wish it will bring with those closest to them.

The Spring Festival in 2021 is on February 12. A series of online celebrations for the "Happy Chinese New Year" will be given by China Cultural Center in Pakistan from February 4th to February 26th. Our Center has prepared a variety of online programmes, such as “Paper Cut Animation Chinese New Year”, “Chinese New Year Virtual Exhibition”, “Longquan Celadon Experience Tour ” and “Ice Show”，“Animation Celebration Carnival”, to share the traditional Chinese concepts “Joy, Harmony, Sharing and Blessing” with you.

This year also marks the year for the cooperation between China Cultural Center in Pakistan and the Department of Culture and Tourism of south China’s Jiangxi Province, they have brought us Man of Hakka which you may browse on our center’s facebook and we will bring the Dream Night of ‘Baixi’, which is an acrobatic play that was created, rehearsed and performed by Jiangxi Acrobatic Troupe Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Jiangxi Cultural Performance Group. And there’ll be more for your visual attractions.

Moreover, to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between China and Pakistan, China Cultural Center in Pakistan will also host a series of rich and diversified cultural events.

Online activities can be seen on below link from February 4, 2021 to 11 February 2021.

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Pakistan, China vow to boost bilateral exchanges in 2021

 

Ambassador of Pakistan to China, Moin Ul Haq during a meeting with China’s Vice Minister for Asian Affairs, Luo Zhaohui and discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral exchanges in 2021 and commended the cooperation during COVID-19.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Pak-China diplomatic ties and both countries will use this as an opportunity to consolidate their relations in various fields.

Moreover, they also vowed to increase CPEC cooperation and find ways to heal the economy in the post-pandemic era.

BEIJING, JAN 21: Ambassador of Pakistan to China, Moin Ul Haq held a meeting with China‘s Vice Minister for Asian Affairs, Luo Zhaohui on Thursday and discussed further strengthening of bilateral exchanges and cooperation in the year 2021.

Both sides reviewed with satisfaction the steady growth in bilateral relations in 2020 despite difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

They also discussed further strengthening bilateral exchanges and cooperation in 2021, which marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

It was also agreed to strengthen communication on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and COVID-19 vaccines to fast-track post-pandemic economic recovery.

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COURTESY cpecinfo.com

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CPEC — the engine of our growth

 

Anjum Ibrahim

Fiftyone memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with an initial 46 billion dollar envisaged investment were signed in April 2015 during Chinese President Xi’s visit to Pakistan when Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister; and ever since then China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) remains a major engine of growth for the country’s beleaguered economy.

Sadly, while the Chinese have worked with three Pakistani administrations amicably, in spite of some irritants, reflective of their sustained commitment to CPEC - defined domestically as a Chinese initiative to improve/strengthen Pakistan’s deficient infrastructure – as well as a vital component of President Xi’s Belt Initiative Road (BRI), those heading the three administrations have not been so forthcoming in acknowledging the contribution of their predecessors.

Former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari in the first week of January 2017, claimed that Pakistan Peoples’ Party was the ‘pioneer of the idea of the multi-billion dollar CPEC and is not concerned who takes credit for the project by placing advertisements in the media.’ This was confirmed by Lijian Zhao, Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister Counselor at Chinese Embassy, Islamabad, during a seminar end-June 2018 titled CPEC & Role of Media – Separating Facts from Misconceptions. And reconfirmed by the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing in September 2020 when he called on the former President to inquire about his health by publicly acknowledging that former President Zardari is the founder of CPEC.

This was not recognized by Nawaz Sharif or any member of his cabinet during his premiership (2013-17); and notwithstanding the two national parties ongoing cooperation under the umbrella of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) today there has been no statement from any PML-N leader acknowledging the role played by Asif Ali Zardari in CPEC’s launch.

On 25 May 2017 Nawaz Sharif while addressing a BRI forum in Beijing highlighted CPEC’s relevance to our economy succinctly: “we are striving to leverage geography for economic prosperity, we are also trying to build a peaceful, connected and caring neighbourhood….CPEC is owned and nurtured by all Pakistan” – a sentiment not shared by Imran Khan at the time.

Before taking oath in August 2018 as the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan opposed CPEC projects for multiple reasons ranging from maintaining that the road route approved and the location of the special economic zones injudiciously bypassed poor areas and lamenting the lack of focus on social (health, education) sectors. In the following month Prime Minister’s Advisor on Commerce Razzak Dawood in an interview to the Financial Times stated that all 57 billion dollar CPEC projects could be eligible for suspension in a review to be conducted under Prime Minister’s orders, adding that “I think we should put everything on hold for a year, so we can get our act together …perhaps we can stretch CPEC out for another five years….Chinese companies received tax breaks, many breaks and have an undue advantage in Pakistan; this is one of the things we are looking at because it’s not fair that Pakistani companies should be disadvantaged.” Pakistan’s stock exchange fell by 0.4 percent in response to this statement and Dawood was forced to retract his statement a day later.

Such publicly expressed sentiments led to Prime Minister Khan receiving at best a lukewarm reception during his first visit to China in November 2018, prompting the opposition to maintain that the new leadership’s injudicious remarks on CPEC, and the offer to Saudi Arabia and the UAE (as well as others) to join CPEC projects made by Prime Minister Khan after the assistance pledged by Saudi Arabia (3 billion dollar loan and 3.2 million dollar deferred oil facility) and the UAE (three billion dollar pledged but one billion dollar disbursed to date), had not gone down well in China.

By 2019 the Prime Minister was fully on board on the criticality of CPEC projects to our economic development no doubt realizing that China – public and private sector – was, contrary to any other foreign private company/government, willing to invest billions of dollars in Pakistan. On 12 May 2019 Imran Khan’s new economic team leaders – Dr Hafeez Sheikh and Dr Reza Baqir – signed off on Pakistan’s 23rd International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme with the guarantee (the first time ever in our long history of going on IMF programmes) to ensure that the loans acquired from China, Saudi Arabia and the
UAE would not be recalled during the duration of the programme because, “financing support from Pakistan’s international partners will be critical to support the authorities’ adjustment efforts and ensure that the medium-term program objectives can be achieved” - the usual assumption in previous Fund loans was that once a country is on a Fund programme concessional funding becomes readily available from other multilaterals/bilaterals.

China has not only kept its pledge but also met the shortfall due to recall of loans by Saudi Arabia (two billion dollars to date) though some concerns over our ability to repay are reportedly surfacing.

A couple of weeks later, on 26 May 2019 Imran Khan with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan witnessed the signing of several MoUS for cooperation in different sectors as per the official website and two projects that began during the tenure of PML-N with a progress update were identified: (i) Matiari-Lahore 660kV HVDC transmission line project with an agreement signed between PPIB and State Grid of China on May 2018 which achieved financial close on 27 February 2019 with an expected COD in March 2021; and (ii) 300 MW imported coal-based project at Gwadar with a No Objection Certificate issued by Balochistan Environment Protection Agency in August 2018 with groundbreaking on 4 November 2019.

Three projects signed during the tenure of the Khan administration that were highlighted included: (i) Kohala Hydel project agreement signed on 25 June 2020; (ii) Cacho 50 MW wind power project and Western Energy 50 MW - both in LoI stage: and (iii) Azad Pattan Hydel project agreement signed on 6 July 2020.

On 8 October 2019 President Alvi promulgated two ordinances – one to set up CPEC authority, headed by Lt-General Asim Saleem Bajwa (retd) (former DG ISPR 2012-16) on the eve of Prime Minister’s second visit to China and, two, granting tax concessions to Gwadar and its free zone. The appointment was seen as providing a safety comfort level to Chinese staff engaged in CPEC projects.

Prime Minister Khan thence began extolling the successes of the Chinese government in ending poverty and improving farm output through reforms though inexplicably he continued to espouse a right wing formula for Pakistan notably that the private sector must be allowed to create wealth and thereby to jump start the economy.

While addressing the Country Strategy Dialogue on Pakistan organized by the World Economic Forum in November 2020 Imran Khan stated that “this is the first government in Pakistan since the 1960s which has made it a point that we want to make profit-making easy for people ... and investors.” These sentiments were in parallel with Imran Khan’s frequent denouncement of mafias (read collusion to set a price higher than the market rate), smugglers and middlemen determining prices through promoting market imperfections. In this context one would hope that the issuance of licences to a select few private companies to import RLNG, with the objective of ensuring timely imports and improving efficiency, does not lead to collusion.

CPEC projects have also been subjected to considerable international criticism. Alice Wells, a former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, in a seminar in November 2019 argued that Pakistan’s indebtedness had increased manifold due to CPEC. Geng Shuang (Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson) rejected these claims as “mere repetition of old slanders against China, the CPEC and BRI” as did the Planning Minister Asad Umer who stated that Pakistan’s mounting debt crisis had nothing to do with China.

In 2019-20 95.73 billion rupees was budgeted for CPEC projects (as counterpart funds) and while the Planning Commission claims it released the entire budgeted amount actual disbursement was 57.44 billion or 60 percent of the total budgeted amount. In 2020-21 the government has budgeted 77.33 billion rupees for CPEC projects (a decline of nearly 20 percent from the year before) and by July-December 2020 the release was 40 billion rupees though the actual disbursed data is not yet available.


China as well as Middle Eastern countries including particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE are reluctant to publicly announce total amount and terms of investment/loans/grants to a third country including special incentives by the recipient country to the pledged inflows. The Khan administration was injudicious in highlighting the pledges of assistance that were later not realized which provided fodder to CPEC critics, local and foreign.

One major lesson learned therefore should be information sharing with relevant documentation with members of the opposition in parliament – be it in-camera or not - to ensure that subsequent governments do not roll back the process to the country’s detriment. Pakistan has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties in arbitration and courts for reneging on contracts signed off by previous governments – the Broadsheet case is just the most recent example.

Disturbingly, Prime Minister Imran Khan refuses to engage with the opposition but would hope that an institutional measure that seeks to share information be put in place to ensure that all are on board with respect to any foreign, public or private sector, contract. Failure to do so may compromise his long-term pet projects including the Ravi City project and development on the islands off the coast of Sindh.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

COURTESY defence.pk

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CGSS organized Online Conference on Pakistan-China-Iran: Trilateral Cooperation: Opportunities and Way Forward

 

ISLAMABAD: On Jan 4, 2021, Center for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS), Islamabad organized an Online Conference on, Pakistan-China-Iran: Trilateral Cooperation: Opportunities and Way Forward.

The conference aimed to examine the opportunities in trilateral cooperation, particularly the sphere of economic partnership. Moreover, the conference also highlighted the prospects of economic cooperation between Gwadar and Chabahar port in the region under China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The conference was commenced with the welcome remarks from Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Senior Member Board of Advisors, CGSS & Professor, School of Politics & IR, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He stated that it is a very timely initiative to organize this conference, there is huge potential in this cooperation and certain challenges as well, we must understand how to maximize the potential of triangular cooperation of Pakistan, Iran, and China.

His Excellency Mohammad Ali Husseini, Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan discussed Iran's vibrant Foreign Policy and relationship with China and Pakistan. He discussed Iran-Pakistan cooperation by emphasizing the neighborhood component and in the light of the commonalities of the relations. Discussing the bilateral relations, he stated that believes Pakistan is the gateway to Asia and Iran is the gateway to Europe. This has made cooperation inevitable for the two countries. Furthermore, Iran has resources and these resources can meet the needs of Pakistan and other friendly & countries. If Pakistan requires energy, Iran has rich resources. If Iran is a drought-stricken country that needs rice and agricultural products, Pakistan is a rich source of these products.

He also highlighted the development of economic and trade relations between these countries. Chabahar Port in Iran and Gwadar Port in Pakistan have great potential to strengthen the connection between both economies in the first place and all countries in the region in the second place. He emphasized that the BRI and CPEC are undoubtedly favorable platforms for the development of regional cooperation, especially for the three countries of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China.

He concluded by announcing, that Iran is utilizing its full capacity to promote its ties with Pakistan in all spheres including trade and economic relations, and welcomes any idea and initiative to achieve this objective.

Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Senior Member Board of Advisors, CGSS & Professor, School of Politics & IR, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan discussed Challenges in the path of China-Iran-Pakistan Economic Development. He highlighted that a new realignment process between all three countries is reemerging. The 400-billion-dollar Chinese investment for the next 25 years reported in US media in the middle of 2020 is good news for Pakistan.

While discussing the domain of domestic challenges he stated that the three states have to keep in mind that there are big potential challenges for their international and economic progress as well as stability. The second important challenge is the law and order issue. Pakistan has also been affected by propaganda and subversive activities against the economic corridor through BLA. 

He emphasized that Pakistan, Iran, and China have to deal with how to counter these rival powers who are trying to disrupt this trilateral relationship.

Furthermore, Pakistan and Iran’s ports are very important for many countries in this region. The US propagated about the chain of pearls after Chinese infrastructure building was initiated in Gwadar, similarly, India can also be rightly blamed for many of such activities. He concluded by emphasizing that we have to work together for this trilateral cooperation and be aware of various challenges like the one posed by the US-India alliance. 

If these three countries work together, they can effectively counter and neutralize these challenges.

Mashallah Shakeri, Former Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan & Member, Institute for Political & International Studies (IPIS), Tehran, Iran discussed implications of China-Iran-Pakistan economic ties for the US Interests in the region. He stated that the Chinese leadership has overtaken the reigns of many international organizations during recent times.

China has also replaced Russia’s contentious position in the US foreign policy. He highlighted that the downward trend in the American economy will continue as their administration’s misbehavior in the last four years was a major issue. Discussing the BRI projects, he stated that China and Pakistan are engaged under the CPEC initiative under the Belt and Road projects. It is interesting to see that as many as 16 countries are to join this initiative.

In event of Iran-China cooperation, CPEC can take a new look. He discussed, that this is the time for Iran to join CPEC. The geostrategic position of Iran can add to the value of CPEC projects. Iranian oil and gas resources can go to China through this route. Furthermore, Iran’s geostrategic positions for countries like Turkey and Afghanistan can also play an important role in this regard.

Dr. Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan, Member Board of Experts, CGSS & Regional Geopolitical Analyst discussed Iran's Economic Resurgence and Cooperation with China, countering the United States agenda of isolating Iran in the International system. He stated that it is indeed an important victory of China and Iran over Trump’s policies and US imperialism. It is also a great example of vibrant Iranian diplomacy. Furthermore, Iranian geography also opens new routes for BRI projects. Cooperation in naval development will neutralize and equalize naval issues in the region. He further stated that Iran has found a partner in the form of China which is strong enough in the east to counter the west.

He suggested, for further strengthening of bilateral cooperation, a new entry point with Gwadar between Iran and Pakistan has been initiated which is the second border crossing between both countries. Transcontinental railway project between Pakistan-Iran-China has also been agreed in the recent past. He concluded by suggesting that, we need to have collaborative efforts in the region to counter challenges imposed by the alliances of rival players in the region.

Prof. Deqiang Ji, Vice Dean, Institute for a Community with Shared Future, Communication University of China, Beijing, China discussed China's BRI and its significance for regional development. He highlighted that the Chinese leadership has continuously proposed working together and having a win-win relationship with all its partner countries. He discussed the importance of BRI projects for China and countries involved in it in the wider region. 

Moreover, he also emphasized that China has tried to avoid geopolitical tensions with different players and alliances working against it in the region. Discussing the bilateral ties of China and Iran, he stated that there can be better energy ties and initiatives for infrastructure building as the strategic location connecting both countries is very important. Highlighting the positive implications of BRI projects, he mentioned, regional connectivity and dialogue under the trilateral cooperation as well as multiple channels and dialogue initiatives for scholars and experts.

Prof. Wang Hu, Associate Professor, School for Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University, Siming-Xiamen, Fujian, China discussed, Prospects of China Pakistan and Iran Trilateral Partnership, Challenges, and Implications. He emphasized that relations between these countries can be established through a trilateral partnership by establishing collaboration. To achieve a real trilateral partnership, we must include civil society participation and broader partnership. 

He suggested that civil society organizations and various enterprises can help in effective grass root development. Discussing the trilateral partnership of Pakistan, China, and Iran, Both Pakistan and Iran have friendly relations with China which can be beneficial in many ways. He also mentioned that BRI projects are important to establish friendly contacts and people to people relations amongst partner countries.

Dr. Qudsia Akram, Assistant Professor, IR, Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore, Pakistan discussed the Prospects of building cooperation and linkages between Gwadar and Chahbahar ports. She presented a detailed geographical overview of the Gwadar and Chabahar port. Discussing the concept of economic integration, she stated that it could be used as an instrument of foreign policy, where political considerations influence the choice of contracting partners. Gwadar and Chabahar present multiple opportunities for connectivity across the region. If geo-politics is isolated from geo-economics, then both ports could provide an impetus for growth for the entire region. Discussing the prospects of linkages and integration she emphasized that, diplomatic means should be utilized on all levels to achieve trilateral dialogues.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan, Member Board of Experts, CGSS & Regional Geopolitical Analyst extended his gratitude to all the panelists. He praised the role of CGSS in initiating important dialogues as being an important institution in Pakistan to bring Pakistan, China, and Iran on the same platform.

The conference was moderated by Ms. Minahil Shawal Afridi, Research Executive, CGSS, and was attended by 100 participants from various fields. It was also viewed by more than 300 people on various social media networks through live stream.

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COURTESY cgss.com.pk

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