By Shannon Tiezzi
China pledges $28 billion to projects in Pakistan, not in spite of but because of security concerns.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first state visit to Pakistan this week, after a trip planned for last September had to be postponed due to protests in Islamabad. With Xi in Pakistan’s capital, the typical lofty rhetoric of “iron brothers” and “all-weather partners” was on display. Billboards in Pakistan welcomed Xi to the country and praised China and Pakistan’s traditional friendship, describing it as “sweeter than honey and stronger than steel.”
While the rhetoric is old, there’s a new element to the relationship — a renewed commitment to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The idea was first proposed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, during a visit to Pakistan in May 2013, but didn’t really gain steam until after China unveiled its much more ambition plans for a inter-continental Silk Road in the fall of 2013. With the “One Belt and One Road” a major focus of Chinese diplomacy in 2014 and 2015, the CPEC has also grown in importance. Chinese officials have called the CPEC a “flagship project” of the One Belt, One Road plan, pointing out that the CPEC provides a link between the overland Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road (through Gwadar Port).
As expected, the CPEC was high on Xi’s agenda during this trip. Xi listed “four key areas” for advancing the project – “Gwadar Port, transport infrastructure, energy, and industrial cooperation.” Accordingly, it was announced during Xi’s visit that Pakistan will receive the first investment from the new Silk Road Fund, a $40 billion fund unveiled last December with the sole purpose of financing One Belt, One Road-related projects. “It has a significant meaning for a China-Pakistan energy cooperation project to be chosen as the first investment project of the Silk Road Fund since its establishment,” Xi said this week.
Read the full story at The Diplomat