Terming the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a ‘scenario-changer’ for South Asia rather than being just a ‘game-changer’, Chinese experts on the region inferred emerging nexus between Pakistan, China and Russia to be a defining development for the region’s flourishing future.
They were deliberating this at a session on ‘Trump’s South Asia Policy: Quadrilateral interaction between Pakistan, China, India and USA and Challenges to CPEC’ held at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). The session was partaken by a three-member delegation from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR)—China’s largest, oldest and most influential research institutes for international studies, overseen by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China—which was led by CICIR’s Institute of South, South-east Asian and Oceanic Studies Director Hu Shisheng. The research faculty of IPS was represented by Lead Coordinator Irfan Shahzad, senior associate Brigadier (r) Said Nazir Mohmand and researchers Fareeha Sarwar and Waqar-un-Nisa as key discussants.
Shisheng said that while he had no doubts that the Chinese dream of CPEC was fast becoming a reality which had immense potential for all its stakeholders, transparency, as well as expectation management, must also be induced as an integral part of all CPEC projects to ensure their smooth progress.
Another Chinese delegate Lin Yiming, in his presentation, referred to decades of close and cordial relations between China and Pakistan, stating that the relationship—which was always built on deep-rooted trust and mutual respect—was only expected to get stronger with time, especially with the advent of CPEC. He believed that China’s stance and policy on Pakistan was certain to remain equally amiable in the distant future as well.
