ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua said on Monday that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) provided Pakistan a great opportunity to become gateway for Central Asia and beyond.
“We see a greater fortune here as Pakistan is going to become a gateway to the Central Asia and ultimately to Russia through this mega project”, Janjua said while addressing a meeting of Islamabad based senior members of the Supreme Central Committee of 101 Friends of China here.
The meeting was attended by intellectuals, economic experts, former ambassadors and former secretaries. Speaking as chief guest of the event, he said that where there were opportunities there were always challenges also to be faced while availing those opportunities.
He said that China was heading towards becoming the leading economy of the world which was not acceptable for some dominating world economies. He said that two trends of international power politics prevailed these days – first of which was the containment of China and the second was to prevent resurgent of Russia as a big power.
He warned that these two trends would affect Pakistan the most. He also said that the economies of the existing allies of the United States were already saturated and therefore it (the US) was looking towards India as an emerging economy in a bid to contain China to become the world’s leading economy.
He said that the $46 billion CPEC would help Pakistan and China to change the fortune of the people of both the countries as well as the region as it was going to be a trade corridor. Addressing the event, 101 Friends of China Chairman Zahid Malik announced that the Secretariat of the Think Tank was all set to make a beginning of opening its chapters in all the cities and towns of Pakistan.
“Even small villages in distant areas would have these chapters,” he said. He also announced to launch enrollment of its members and the target of membership for the year 2016 had been set as 100,000. Meanwhile, the 101 Friends of China also put a Resolution expressing serious concern over the escalation of tension in the South China and alarm over the military buildup in the recent weeks in the region, which was adopted unanimously.
Expressing solidarity with China, the resolution stressed that the Permanent Court of Arbitration should conduct business strictly within its jurisdiction and that its rulings should not be used as an instrument to fuel tensions and disputes. Underscoring the importance of the CPEC, the flagship project of One Belt One Road, peace and stability in the region imperative, the resolution underlined the deep-rooted historical and strategic ties between Pakistan and China.
Embassy of China in Pakistan, Mission Deputy Head, Zhou Lijian thanked the 101 Friends of China for supporting the genuine case of China and said that this resolution was very much in time which showed strong support from the people of Pakistan to the people of China. He said that China wanted to resolve the issue of South China Sea peacefully through negotiation with its neighboring countries including Vietnam and Philippines.
