A webinar on ‘Indo-Pacific (Quad) Accord and China Curtailment Policy of the US against BRI: Strategic Importance of CPEC for Regional Development, Peace and Security in collaboration with Golden Ring Economic Forum (GREF) and ORIC-UMT’ was held.
According to Gwadar Pro, the panelists from Pakistan and China discussed the regional security scenario, policies to contain and curtail China, threat to BRI and CPEC and put forward certain suggestions that how both sides can jointly counter all these.
It is worth noting that the Gwadar port is the single shortest journey for China, Iran and Russia to the Indian Ocean, which makes Pakistan a very strategic and critical player in the entire region.
Hasnain Reza Mirza, President of GREF stated in his opening remarks that after the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan, the terrorist activities have increased especially against the Chinese in Pakistan. Pakistan and China have to jointly come up with something to save ourselves, secure BRI and CPEC and keep Gwadar port functioning.
Lt. Gen. Sikander Afzal HI(M), (R), Chairman, GREF, highlighted that in order to take full advantage of CPEC, Pakistan needs to focus on several sectors, namely, the development of its human resources to meet the needs of future, expansion of its economic development to areas of the country which are neglected in the past, removal of deprivation, giving livelihood and finished the scrooge of terrorism and separators, and going for reform of its agriculture to ensure food security, etc.
Sharing her views about unleashing Pakistan’s Geo-Economic Potential to Build a China-Pakistan Community of Shared Future in the New Era, H.E. Dr. Zhao Baige (HI), Chair of Advisory Committee of BRI International Think Tank and RDI underlined that, “Peace and stability of Afghanistan are of vital importance to the regional economic development, connectivity, prosperity and stability of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. This requires the cooperation of the international community, especially regional countries, and Pakistan, as a key node country, will play a key role in this process.”
Prof. Dr. Wang Yiwei, Director, Institute of International Affairs underscored that G7 countries proposed B3W to replicate BRI, which just proved BRI’s success once again. “There are so many political and very importantly financial constraints for G7 countries that it would be difficult to replicate a project like this. Countries all over the world are a community with a shared future, especially in today’s digital age. Countries need to cooperate with each other.”
Vice Admiral Waseem Akram (r) suggested to have a direct oil and gas line going from Gwadar port till Xinjiang China, which is going to help both countries in a big way. “A railway network between Xinjiang and Gwadar port has also to be developed on a priority, as then Pakistan can link this to the rail network of China, which is going to Europe and elsewhere.”
Chen Jiancheng, Chairman and CEO of Beijing Sky Century IT Company, stated that China-Pakistan economic cooperation should do a good job in the top-level cooperation structure and realize the strategic exertion and improvement of their respective resource advantages in the top-level structure of China Pakistan and regional economic cooperation. “We should plan large-scale projects with leading value in various industries, integrate a large number of small projects that are difficult to form scale effect and leading value, and launch several large-scale projects to lead cooperation.”
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