Pak now says Saudi not to join CPEC

Days after announcing that Saudi Arabia is set to become the third strategic partner in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan has said the kingdom will not be made part of the trade and transit project and its proposed investments will be covered by a separate bilateral arrangement.

On September 20, information minister Fawad Chaudhry had said Saudi Arabia was expected to join CPEC. The announcement came after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to the kingdom. The Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, Nawaf Saeed Ahmed Al-Malky, too had confirmed his country would “soon” join the project and make investments in Gwadar port.

But on Tuesday, addressing a joint news conference with Chaudhry, planning and development minister Khusro Bakhtiar said there was no decision to bring a third country, such as Saudi Arabia, under the framework of CPEC. He was responding to a question about the possibility of Saudi Arabia becoming part of the joint working groups (JWGs) or joint coordination committee (JCC) on CPEC between China and Pakistan.

He said there could be many offshoots of CPEC where third countries such as Japan, Germany or Saudi Arabia could be involved under trilateral arrangements for infrastructure development.

“Saudi Arabia is not to become a collateral strategic partner in the CPEC ,” he said. HTC