Latest news with #China-PakistanEconomicCorridor
India Today
21 hours ago
- Business
- India Today
China steps in to stabilise Pakistan-Afghanistan ties amid rising security threats
In a quiet yet decisive move, China is emerging as the most influential external player working to de-escalate tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan. As Islamabad grapples with a resurgence of cross-border attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Beijing has assumed the role of mediator, urging both sides to reset their fractured relationship for the sake of regional diplomatic interventionadvertisementThe turning point came during a recent trilateral meeting of foreign ministers from China, Pakistan and Afghanistan in Beijing. More than a diplomatic formality, the meeting helped revive stalled talks and catalyse a breakthrough in relations. With vested interests in securing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and maintaining peace along its western borders, China used its influence to urge the Afghan Taliban to make tangible commitments to address Pakistan's security concerns. One of Beijing's key successes was fostering an agreement for enhanced diplomatic engagement, marked by Pakistan appointing an ambassador to Kabul for the first time since the Taliban takeover in significantly, Chinese officials reportedly conveyed a firm message to the Afghan leadership: reining in anti-Pakistan militant groups is non-negotiable if Kabul seeks continued economic and diplomatic shift: From "Jihad" to "Fasaad"advertisementIn a rare and carefully worded public statement, senior Taliban commander Saeedullah Saeed issued a warning to militant factions in the region. He stated that any act of jihad carried out without the explicit authorisation of the Amir (supreme leader) is not only illegitimate but also constitutes fasaad (corruption) under Islamic law.'Only the Amir of the state has the authority to declare jihad — not individuals or groups,' Saeed asserted, emphasising that unauthorized violence stems from ego or group loyalty rather than genuine interpret this as a direct rebuke to TTP fighters and similar groups operating from Afghan territory. It also subtly acknowledges Chinese concerns, as ongoing instability threatens Beijing's multibillion-dollar investments in South and Central China stepped in?Securing CPEC & BRI: The $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has repeatedly come under threat from militant violence. Stabilising Pakistan's western border is key to protecting China's economic Zone Strategy: Sharing a narrow border with Afghanistan, China aims to prevent the spillover of extremist ideology into its restive Xinjiang region. A stable Afghanistan, supported by Pakistan, serves as a strategic Leverage: With the U.S. and Western allies largely disengaged from Afghanistan, China sees an opportunity to fill the diplomatic vacuum and position itself as a regional payoff for PakistanFor Pakistan, China's involvement is a diplomatic asset. It provides international legitimacy in its campaign against cross-border terrorism and heightens pressure on the Taliban to crack down on TTP sanctuaries. The Taliban's recent statements and willingness to re-engage diplomatically suggest that this pressure is beginning to yield now hopes to translate these developments into concrete security outcomes — including a measurable decline in militant attacks and enhanced intelligence cooperation from InMust Watch
NDTV
a day ago
- Business
- NDTV
Pakistan Upgrades Ties With Afghanistan Days After China's Taliban Outreach
New Delhi: Days after a China-convened meeting that pushed for greater Pakistan-Afghanistan ties, Islamabad has made a significant announcement - that it will be sending an Ambassador to Kabul soon. This is the first time since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021 that Islamabad has decided to upgrade its ties with its western neighbour. The announcement was made on Friday by Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar, who met his Chinese counterpart and the Taliban's acting foreign minister last week in Beijing. Diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan are currently at a charge d'affaires-level - a step below that of an Ambassador. Besides last week's ministerial-level meeting organised by Beijing, Pakistan's foreign minister had traveled to Kabul with a Pakistani delegation last month to hold delegation-level talks to further bilateral ties. 'POSITIVE TRAJECTORY' Praising the "positive trajectory" between Islamabad and Kabul ever since last month's delegation-level talks, Mr Dar said it is time to upgrade ties with the Taliban. Announcing the decision to send an Ambassador, he added that "I am confident this step would further contribute towards enhanced engagement and exchanges between two fraternal countries." Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are on positive trajectory after my very productive visit to Kabul with Pakistan delegation on 19th April 2025. To maintain this momentum, I am pleased to announce the decision of the Government of Pakistan to upgrade the level of its Chargé… — Ishaq Dar (@MIshaqDar50) May 30, 2025 Pakistan however, has not named the person who will be sent to Kabul as Ambassador. The Taliban too, has not responded to Islamabad's gesture yet, though it also has its charge d'affaires based in Islamabad. CHINA'S MOVES IN AFGHANISTAN China has made it a priority to settle differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan and push for Beijing's greater influence in south Asia. This could be seen last week. Besides the meeting where all three foreign minister's were present, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held individual closed-door talks with Afghanistan's acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. Though China was the first country to accept an Ambassador from the Taliban-run administration in Kabul, Beijing says it officially hasn't formalised ties with Kabul. However, Beijing has swung into action after India's outreach to the Taliban administration on May 15 - when foreign minister S Jaishankar held ministerial-level talks with Kabul for the first time since 2021. Beijing has also announced that after last week's meeting with the Taliban minister, Afghanistan has come on board the so-called "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or PoK. In addition to this, Beijing said that the informal talks it organised between the Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban administration has led to the two countries to upgrade relations. TRADING CHARGES Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have remained strained since December 2024, when nearly 50 people were killed in Afghanistan's Paktika province after Pakistan's air force bombed the region. Islamabad claims that those who launch attacks inside Pakistan use Afghan soil to do so. Kabul rejects this, saying such attacks emanate from within Pakistan, which is plagued with terrorists which are its own creation. Handling terrorism is Pakistan's domestic problem, Kabul has said. Afghanistan's Taliban administration has also expressed concern over the manner in which Pakistan was deporting tens of thousands of refugees. UNOFFICIALLY OFFICIAL No country has formally recognised the Taliban administration since it took control of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces. Nationals globally have called for the Taliban to change course on women's rights. Pakistan now becomes the fourth country after China, UAE, and Uzbekistan to designate an Ambassador to Kabul. Although these governments maintain that they have not formally recognised the Taliban, diplomats and experts say that having an Ambassador officially present their credentials represents a major step towards recognition.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Business
- Indian Express
BRI's debt trap and China's expanding footprint
When Beijing's flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) marked its decadal milestone in October 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, 'Viewing others' development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one's own life better or speed up one's development.' However, instead of mutually-beneficial interdependence, China today has managed to make 140 countries highly asymmetrically dependent on it for economic investment and trade. Many of these dependencies are a result of the over $1.175 trillion worth of construction contracts and non-financial investments Beijing has undertaken under the BRI. Now, analysts suggest that loans to the tune of a whopping $35 billion may be up for repayment in 2025, and most countries affected are financially vulnerable, developing economies. When compared with the first few years of its launch, the BRI today has changed gears from being a money-pumping endeavour to one focused on 'small but smart and beautiful' projects. This is because, as Xi highlighted in so many words in 2023, the BRI has faced multiple challenges vis-à-vis increasing international hostility, inadequate completion of projects and repayment of loans. If one looks at Pakistan, it owes most of its external debt (~22 per cent of total debt; nearly $29 billion) to China. As part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a crown jewel initiative of the BRI in Asia, China promised an investment of $62 billion to Pakistan, of which approximately $26.6 billion has already been infused. The major projects the money has gone to include Special Economic Zones built in Karachi, Sialkot, Risalpur and other key Pakistani cities, the development of the Gwadar Port, and various infrastructure projects including construction of various energy power plants and a Pak-China Technical and Vocational Institute. However, the CPEC has not yielded the growth it was supposed to. This is primarily because of the internal dynamics of Pakistan. For example, even though Rawalpindi has created a Special Security Division to protect CPEC projects and personnel, insurgency by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and militancy in Karachi have continued to plague projects. Similarly, frequent electricity cuts and supply shortages have made project completion difficult and energy initiatives untenable. A Chinese government article from 2018 itself argues that Pakistan has problems of corruption and is facing a sharp fall in its foreign exchange reserves. As a result, it has repeatedly sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Another major BRI-indebted economy, and India's neighbour, is Sri Lanka. The Hambantota port, which is owned and operated by Chinese firm CMPort and enables Beijing's strategic foothold in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), faces its own hurdles. The key project, an oil refinery on the port, was initiated in 2019, but has yielded no results so far. With Sri Lanka's economic crisis, emerging from massive unpaid sovereign debt (of which, officially, only about 10 per cent was owed to China), the project was halted for many years between 2020 and 2024. Given Sri Lanka's overt dependence on imports for servicing its oil and energy needs, the project has been deemed crucial to yield growth dividends for the island nation. Nonetheless, if true, the claims that the Hambantota port development is mired in corruption due to China's collusion with local elites, may mean that the dividends take a long time to materialise. In this light, Xi has referred to the new BRI as an endeavour to 'take results-oriented actions' and undertake 'a new stage of high-quality development.' Further, the goals of the revamped BRI included emphasising green and sustainable infrastructure development, progress in scientific innovation and people-to-people exchanges, and 'high-level principles of integrity'. To meet these goals, the China Development Bank (CDB) and the Export-Import Bank of China also announced in 2023 a 350 billion yuan (~$48 billion) financing window. Further, to enforce integrity and compliance internally, in 2024, China's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) also launched a widespread campaign against embezzlers and bribers in the BRI financing ecosystem. The crackdown started at the highest levels, with one of the first ones to fall being Wang Yongsheng, former deputy president of CDB, who was expelled from the Communist Party for 'severe violations of Party discipline and the law.' Liu Liange, former President of the EXIM Bank (2015-18), was even given the death penalty by a Shandong province people's court for corruption and illegal issuance of loans in November 2024. While none of these announcements identified corruption as part of BRI projects, the CCDI targeted the most powerful officials, who undoubtedly had a major role to play in decision-making vis-à-vis BRI financing. Externally, the announcement of CPEC 2.0 at the meeting between Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on May 20, 2025, also carried a new message. This 'upgraded version' of CPEC will promote cooperation in industry, agriculture, energy and minerals, security and human resource development, and does not necessarily revolve around mighty infrastructure projects. Similarly, in January 2025, Chinese energy firm Sinopec concluded a fast-tracking agreement with Sri Lanka, to curb any further hindrances that may plague the Hambantota refinery project. None of these challenges seem to indicate that Chinese investment in BRI would halt — they are, however, likely to slow down. In fact, as per numbers released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in late April this year, Chinese enterprises made non-financial direct investments totaling 63.63 billion yuan (~$8 billion) in BRI partner countries, a year-on-year increase of 16.8 per cent. In the same period, construction contracts worth 338.27 billion yuan (~$47 billion) have also been signed with BRI partner countries. In strong economies, BRI investments may lead to GDP growth, minimising any drastic implications for the debt-to-GDP ratio. Singapore is an example for this. However, the biggest victims of a BRI-induced debt trap would be smaller economies in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa, many of which incidentally are also the economies with the most external debt owed to China, and have weak domestic institutional structures. With a lack of global opportunities and alternatives, these economies are unlikely to turn their back on Chinese funding. In this regard, one can only hope that BRI financing focuses on sustainability and deliverability in the coming future, especially because in the first quarter of 2025, global debt has reached a record high of $324 trillion. The writer is Staff Research Analyst, Indo-Pacific Studies Programme, Takshashila Institution
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
‘Our quarrel is only with terror', not Pakistan's development: Tharoor in Colombia - The Economic Times Video
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, speaking in Bogotá, Colombia, emphasized that India's only concern is with terrorism emanating from Pakistan, not its developmental ties with China. He highlighted China's 81% share in Pakistan's defence imports and the strategic significance of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
India.com
2 days ago
- Business
- India.com
Bad news for Pakistan as China decides to hold direct talks with Munir's enemy for....
Bad news for Pakistan as China decides to hold direct talks with Munir's enemy for.... CPEC project: Not all is well between Pakistan and China. In order to save the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, China has decided to start direct talks with Baloch rebels bypassing the Pakistani army to secure and speed up progress on the stalled CPEC. This new stance of China has been stated in clear words by China during the recent visit of Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif to Beijing. China is taking this step because CPEC is being constantly attacked by Baloch rebels, due to which major projects like Gwadar port and Reko Diq mining project have almost come to a standstill. Apart from this, China is also upset with the growing interest of US in the mineral resources of Balochistan. China has invested more than $ 60 billion in the CPEC project, but Baloch rebels continue to attack Chinese employees and Chinese projects. Many Chinese engineers have been killed by Baloch rebels. Therefore, China now wants to sit across the Balochs at the negotiating table. According to reports, China is also trying to send a positive message to the rest of the countries associated with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China has been struggling for more than a decade and now believes that the real protectors of Balochistan are the Balochi people. This attitude of China shows that it should now talk on its own instead of relying on the Pakistan Army after many reports suggest that the Asim Muni's Army has lost control over most areas of Balochistan and the CPEC project is in serious danger. What are Balochs' thinking However, the Baloch groups are deeply suspicious of this proposal of China. In 2019 also, such secret talks were held in Dubai which failed. There are deep differences among the Baloch groups regarding direct talks with China. The Balochs demand autonomy for Balochistan and Balochistan's share in the earnings from CPEC. It is estimated that mineral resources worth about $ 6 trillion may be hidden in Balochistan, which include important elements like copper, gold and lithium. These minerals are very important for China's green technology and electric vehicle industry. Direct talks with Baloch groups will help China ensure the security of its supply chain, as well as enable long-term exploitation of these minerals while avoiding administrative hurdles.
