China and Pakistan agree to speed up work on CPEC: Insecurity is key challenge

China and Pakistan have agreed to accelerated progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a massive bilateral project to improve infrastructure within Pakistan for better trade with China and to further integrate the countries of South Asia. CPEC is part of the larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to improve connectivity, trade, communication and cooperation between several countries. BRI was announced by the Chinese government in 2013, and work to achieve this goal has been in progress since then. CPEC in Pakistan includes projects such as a 3,000km road construction, water-electricity dams, building and rebuilding of sea-and-land corridors as well as work on deep water port in Gwadar in the Arabian Sea and a well built road and rail link from this port to Xinjiang region in western China. This port would be a shortcut trade route between Europe and China. In Pakistan, the CPEC will overcome electricity shortfall, infrastructural development and modernizing transportation networks. Pakistan can also move itself from an agricultural based economic structure to industrial based and CPEC is only the key project to achieve this goal.

Pakistan officials visited China to push work on CPEC

Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had paid a three-day official visit to China, where he met with  Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, Liu Jianchao, where they discussed issues related to the CPEC.

During the meeting in the capital city, Beijing, the two sides agreed to further accelerate work on CPEC projects and they also discussed the longstanding cooperation and exchanges between the political parties of Pakistan and the Communist Party of China.

Senator Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s firm support to China on its core issues while Minister Liu expressed China’s support for Pakistan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and high-quality socioeconomic development, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office.

The two leaders also reaffirmed the importance of the All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership between Pakistan and China and to further reinforce mutually beneficial collaboration. “

They also expressed joint determination to accelerate progress on all CPEC projects including ML-I upgradation, Gwadar Port and KKH realignment.

CPEC security is important to Sino-Pakistani ties

China and Pakistan both are on the same page to accelerate work on CPEC, but security is the main obstacle and the important part of the project is Gwadar Port which is located in Balochistan, a state where security incidents to hamper CPEC work has been on large scale.

Indeed, CPEC projects have yielded tangible benefits for the local economy and its people, but the recent wave of attacks has been one of key challenges, which Pakistani security agencies apparently failed to overcome.

A view of hydel power project under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) built on Jehlum river.

Pakistani security apparatus must put security issues on their priority in the wake of recent attacks against Chinese workers.

On May 9, at least seven workers were killed in the city of Gwadar in Balochistan, while a few weeks earlier, 11 people were shot dead in two separate incidents again in Balochistan.

It is worth mentioning that all the seven victims in Gwadar and the nine bus passengers who were gunned down near Noshki were from Punjab province. These targets clearly add to the ethnic dimension of the incident and this is because the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), has been openly said to target anyone as they want freedom of Balochistan. Targeting people from Punjab is part of their strategy to pressurize the central government in Islamabad.

BLA group would do everything to hamper CPEC proejct

Meanwhile, BLA would also not hesitate to attack Chinese sites and workers in a bid to hamper the work on CPEC and BLA will continue to target Chinese engineers to stop progress on CPEC as well as to damage China-Pakistan relations.

On March 26, five Chinese nationals and a Pakistani citizen were killed in a suicide attack targeting a vehicle carrying Chinese staff working on the Dasu Dam in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

It is important to mention that similar attacks targeting Chinese citizens happened in 2021 and 2022, leaving many people dead and wounded.

Indeed, each of these terror attacks has its own specific dynamics and the target is clear to just hamper CPEC and also to discourage China on CPEC project, but so far Beijing’s reaction to the incident has been firm, but at the same time for example after March 26 attack, Beijing called for a thorough investigation, and even called for a forming a join investigation team. China also assured that Beining and Islamabad’s cooperation can not be sabotaged by any attempt and recently both agreed to accelerate work on the CPEC.

There have been security failures on part of Pakistan

Undoubtedly, there have been security failures on the part of the security establishment of Pakistan, which failed to maintain security across the country, especially in Balochistan. The Pakistan army needs to chalk out an effective security plan to help improve security and avoid any security lapses that could affect Pakistan-China interests, and particularly to protect the lives of humans. The recent killing of seven barbers in Balochistan is unjustifiable.

Security issue has always been a headache in Pakistan, where several big incidents happened, but there could be lots of internal, regional and international reason behind that. But what is the most important is that Pakistan is also suffering from fragile economic condition and CPEC is one of the most important projects that could play an important role in improving the country’s economy.