News Mania / Piyal Chatterjee / 16th October 2024
At a Shanghai collaboration Organization (SCO) summit in Islamabad on Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged the extension of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to improve regional collaboration. He was speaking to officials from 11 nations, including host Pakistan, China, Russia, and India, who were attending a heads of government conference of the SCO, a Eurasian security and political organization founded in 2001.
Ten years ago, China introduced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a $1 trillion plan for global energy and infrastructural networks that will link Asia with Africa and Europe via land and sea routes. Since Xi’s announcement, more than 150 nations, including Russia, have committed to taking part in the BRI.
“Flagship projects like the Belt and Road Initiative of President Xi Jinping…should be expanded focusing on developing road, rail and digital infrastructure that enhances integration and cooperation across our region,” Sharif said in his speech as the chair of the meeting.
Beijing’s adversaries believe China is using the BRI as a means of expanding its economic and geopolitical power. Last year, Western nations revealed plans to launch a competing broadband infrastructure development plan worth $600 billion under the G7 framework. Additionally, BRI has come under fire for pushing developing nations’ unmanageable debt levels higher. As part of the BRI, Beijing has invested billions of dollars in the South Asian nation for road networks, a vital port, and an airport through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Sharif added that 40 percent of the world’s population lived in the SCO’s ten full member states and that CPEC will also serve in fostering collaboration. Additionally, he demanded that the SCO establish a unique development finance mechanism.
The most high-profile gathering the embattled South Asian country has hosted in years is the SCO conference. Chinese Premier Li Qiang is one of seven prime ministers in attendance. Additionally, Sharif stated that for the SCO member states to fully realize economic potential, peace in neighboring Afghanistan—which is situated between South and Central Asia—is necessary.
India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was also there. He is the country’s first foreign minister to visit Pakistan in almost ten years, during which time relations between the competing, nuclear-armed neighbors remain tense.
Both parties have stated that no bilateral meeting is scheduled, but Sharif and Jaishankar did speak briefly last night when the Indian official attended a dinner that the Pakistani premier hosted.
According to a transcript released by India’s foreign ministry, Jaishankar congratulated Pakistan on winning the presidency of the SCO’s Heads of Government Council and offered Islamabad India’s “full support” during his remarks at the meeting.
