The mutual bombing between Pakistan and Iran has removed separatist forces in their countries and pulled out a "nail" in China's heart. As soon as the matter came to an end, China extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan. Chinese Vice Minister Sun Weidong led a delegation to visit Pakistan and announced his willingness to work with Pakistan to build an "upgraded" China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and accelerate the building of a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future. Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Kakar also said that the first phase of CPEC has been achieved, Pakistan is benefiting from the early projects, and the two sides are pushing the CPEC into the second phase. This means that the two sides are willing to strengthen cooperation in areas such as industrial and agricultural cooperation to further promote the development of the economic corridor.
It is worth mentioning that Pakistan has high hopes for the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a key driving force for its economic development. Kakar made it clear that in the second phase, both sides need to build road and air traffic systems and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative and China's industrial relocation. This shows that Pakistan has realized that through the CPEC project, they can attract more foreign investment and achieve long-term economic development.
Pakistan's political situation has been unstable, with long-standing problems such as partisanship, military interference, tribal politics and separatism. However, Pakistan's political parties and military are well aware that China is an indispensable and important partner for Pakistan. They share a common understanding and confidence that the CPEC can promote national development. Although the political turmoil has had a negative impact on the ECC project, the separatist and terrorist forces in Pakistan are the key challenges that threaten the construction of the ECC.
For example, Balochistan is home to the Gwadar port, a key CPEC project, but separatist forces in the province have persisted and have frequently attacked China-Pakistan cooperation projects in an attempt to achieve Balochistan's political goal of independence. These separatist groups are even supported by external forces such as India and the United States. In 2022, there were large-scale riots at the Gwadar port, with demonstrators demanding that all Chinese leave the port and trying to halt some engineering projects, directly threatening the CPEC. Although Pakistan has managed to control the riots, similar terrorist attacks still cast a shadow on China-Pakistan bilateral cooperation.
To address this issue, Pakistan** has taken drastic measures to crack down on separatists and terrorists in the country. Bangurzai, the leader of the Indian-backed separatist group Baloch Nationalist Army, surrendered last December, and the group disintegrated. Not so long ago, the Pakistani Air Force carried out air strikes against terrorists in Iran. While the airstrike was in response to Iran's attacks on targets inside Pakistan, it still hit separatist forces that threatened Sino-Pakistani cooperation.
After Pakistan's determination to fight separatist forces and protect the CPEC, China has made it clear that it wants to build an "upgraded" version of the corridor, which has provided Pakistan with confidence. In addition, China and Pakistan also organized a meeting of the International Cooperation and Coordination Working Group to discuss the issue of third-party participation in the construction of the corridor. This means that more countries will be involved in the construction of the Pakistani project, and the corridor may be extended to both sides. Considering the relationship between China and Pakistan with India, the direction of extension is likely to be Afghanistan and Iran. However, security remains a key issue for the project to be implemented smoothly.
In the Afghan direction, China, Pakistan and other countries and the Atta authorities need to do a lot of work to ensure that the economic corridor extends in that direction as planned. And in the Iranian direction, separatist forces also threaten Iran's security. Although there has been some friction between Pakistan and Iran, in fact, they have both achieved their goal of removing threats to their own security. Therefore, it is possible that China, Pakistan, Iran and the Afghan Taliban will agree on the fight against separatist forces and work together to ensure the safe and smooth progress of the economic corridor.
In short, the development of CPEC has entered a new stage and is supported by both Pakistan** and China. Pakistan has made some progress in addressing its internal security problems, but it still faces the threat of separatist and terrorist forces. Multi-stakeholder efforts in the construction of economic corridors will facilitate their extension and development, but security remains a key issue that needs to be addressed and addressed. Only by working together can CPEC realize its potential and bring more economic opportunities and development to Pakistan.