Emerging irritant: on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Emerging irritant: on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

What has happened?

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China’s ambitious project for increasing connectivity and economic cooperation within Eurasia. Since its announcement in 2013, the BRI has been positively received by many countries covered within its ambit.

Indian concern regarding CPEC

China’s insistence on establishing the CPEC project through PoK is seen by India as a deliberate disregard of its territorial claims

Effect of CPEC

• If China invests heavily in the region, it risks becoming party to what has been a troubling bilateral dispute between nuclear-armed rivals.
• If CPEC gets operationalized and fortifies the emergence of a fully functional China-Pakistan axis, this would hamper India’s larger interests in the South Asian region and force a strategic rethink in South Block
• The incentives for this would be even stronger if CPEC’s potential success renders PoK more industrially developed, thus granting Pakistan greater legitimacy over the region

Conclusion

The best way forward would be for India to come up with a concrete plan on PoK. Otherwise, its protests on CPEC may well be ignored by stakeholders in the project, with little consequence.