By Shannon Tiezzi
China and Pakistan sign news deals in Xinjiang, while Pakistan talks of linking Iran to the new infrastructure.
On August 11 and 12, a forum on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) convened in Xinjiang, in northwestern China. According to Xinhua, the event was attended by “[m]ore than 300 officials and delegates from companies, think tanks and social organizations” from both China and Pakistan.
Under the CPEC, China and Pakistan plan to build infrastructure to connect Gwadar Port in Pakistan with Kashgar in Xinjiang. The project has become a “flagship project” of China’s Silk Road Economic Belt, although it was proposed in May 2013, a few months earlier than the broader economic belt. As a sign of its important place in the overall strategy, the CPEC was the first project to receive an investment from China’s $40 billion Silk Road Fund, providing partial financing for the $1.65 billion Karot hydropower project in Pakistan. Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain predicted that the CPEC will be “a monument of the century” during his February 2014 visit to China.
The forum in Xinjiang this week ended with the issuing of the “Karamay Manifesto” on the CPEC, which “praised the significance of the Belt and Road Initiative and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative for the political trust, economic cooperation and cultural exchanges of the countries along the road,” according to Xinhua.
China and Pakistan also signed 20 cooperation agreements, worth $1.6 billion, at the forum. Chinese media did not provide details on the contents of the agreements, although Xinhua mentioned general cooperation in “energy and power projects” and “education and health care.” During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan in April of this year, the two sides identified four key areas for cooperation: “Gwadar Port, energy, transport infrastructure and industrial cooperation.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat