Join ChinaPak Economic Corridor, Chinese state media tells India
India should join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which goes through PakistanOccupied-Kashmir (PoK), to reap economic benefits even if it means legitimising the disputed region, the Chinese state media said on Friday.
The advice from Chinese state media came close on the heels of foreign secretary S Jaishankar making it clear in the just-concluded strategic dialogue that India has issues with the CPEC passing through PoK.
The multi-billion dollar CPEC is the flagship project under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive connectivity project over land and sea.
“New Delhi fears that the CPEC, passing through the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, would serve the purpose of granting legitimacy to Pakistan’s control over the region, and by promoting the construction of the corridor, China intends to meddle in the Kashmir dispute. These concerns are unwarranted,” the Global Times, a nationalistic, state-controlled tabloid, said on Friday.
India’s lukewarm response to the BRI is said to be primarily because of the CPEC passing through PoK, besides New Delhi’s unease with China’s relentless pursuit of south Asian countries to join the initiative.
“China has no intention of interfering between India and Pakistan. China has long believed that the two neighbours should solve their dispute through dialogue and consultations, and it has repeatedly emphasised that construction of CPEC would not affect its stance on the issue,” the article said.
In fact, it suggested, India, thanks to the BRI and CPEC, could resolve “misunderstandings” over “disputed Kashmir” with Pakistan through economic cooperation.
“India should not view Pakistan’s development as a threat. As long as India is willing to, China, Pakistan and India could cooperate to tap the vast economic potential in the disputed Kashmir region,” it said.
THE ARTICLE SAYS CHINA RESPECTS INDIA’S SOVEREIGNTY CONCERNS BUT CALLS ON NEW DELHI TO TAKE AN ‘OBJECTIVE VIEW’ OF THE BRI