Take the ‘A’ train

It is not difficult to see why CPEC as a concept is attracting players beyond original signatories China and Pakistan

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become the train on which an increasing number of states want to ride. Britain, Russia and Turkmenistan are the latest to recognise the potential that can be accessed/unlocked, and decided that CPEC is a win-win. The British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has paid a two-day visit and, in his address at the Government College University in Lahore on Friday 26^th November, he termed the CPEC ‘a wonder project’. He urged British firms to jump aboard and further urged greater integration of regional trade, harking back to the Silk Routes of centuries ago which dominated east-west trade and communication. He called for a more dynamic relationship between the UK and Pakistan saying that the current level of bilateral trade at £2.7 billion ‘was not enough’. Almost simultaneously, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan where me met with the Turkmen PM and green-lighted approval to Russia to use Gwadar port for trading, joining Iran and Turkmenistan itself in a growing list of states signing up for the CPEC.

It is not difficult to see why the CPEC as a concept is attracting players beyond the original signatories China and Pakistan. The wrangling of inter-party politics in Pakistan pales into insignificance as broader possibilities emerge around the CPEC, indicating a latency that may have truly global implications. It is no pipe dream to think in terms of a re-mapping of the Silk Route to suit modern geopolitical imperatives, and actualising a model that is currently in the proof-of-concept stages is going to be a challenge for a generation of politicians and planners in Pakistan and well beyond.

This is an opportunity for Pakistan like no other in decades, but the caveats revolve around stability and competencies — can Pakistan get on top of the terrorism and extremism that pollute the security paradigm? And does it have the ability at an administrative level to address and resolve the many issues that are also riders on the ‘A’ train? The price of a ticket to ride literally lies in the ability to deliver the goods, and not all packages smell as sweet as all the others.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2016.

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