Robust defence of CPEC

Pakistan would neither back out from CPEC nor will it become ‘collateral damage’ of any conflict between major powers

Pakistan leapt into the fray to mount defence of the lucrative, multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project a day after an uncommon slugfest between Washington and Beijing on the question of who stands to benefit most from the latter’s signature scheme. On the United States’ concern over ‘burdensome loans’ from Chinese state-owned enterprises potentially ‘hamstringing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s reform agenda’, Pakistan issued a robust rebuttal, with newly-inducted Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar quashing the notion that Islamabad was destined to slip into a ‘debt trap’.

He was at pains to nullify the suggestion that Beijing was the sole beneficiary of its corridor project and asserted that the country’s relations with China within the scope of the grand scheme will never cool. Umer was responding to a speech made by US Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, Alice Wells, at an event in Washington two days previously. She had launched a blistering attack on China’s international development projects and lending practices under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The planning and development minister, in his rejoinder, said that CPEC would not prove to be a burden for the country but help in providing a strong basis for industrial growth in the years ahead. To Wells’ assertion that the multi-billion-dollar project is ‘certain to take a toll on Pakistan’s economy’ at the time of repayment of the debt and dividends in the coming years, Umer pointed out that the bilateral commercial debt from China would start declining in two to three years. He was unequivocal in his avowal that Pakistan would neither back out from the CPEC nor would it become a ‘collateral damage’ of any conflict between major powers.

Speaking about what he claimed was an ‘organized campaign’ against the CPEC both from in and outside the country, he said he could not say whether the US was behind that campaign or not. ‘What I can say is that we cannot step back from our friends especially from those who helped us out when we were at the deepest crisis of our history.’ We cannot agree with the minister more.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2019.

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