December 30, 2020
China, with its BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) project, is making sure that Pakistan is completely debt-trapped, forced to ‘part’ with its territories, and loses political and strategic autonomy significantly.
Media reports have indicated that China is not inclined to entertain Islamabad’s request to finance the US$6.1 billion Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project, the biggest component of the Chinese flagship CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) project, at a 1 percent interest rate.
In the ML-1 project, the interest rates have been negotiated, re-negotiated, suspended, and re-commenced. Beijing is aware that in the given global scenario and Pakistan’s precarious financial state, it cannot dictate terms and hence after some posturing, will be forced to accept the Chinese terms, whatever be the cost political, economic, and strategic.
After facing a series of crises ranging from macroeconomic instability to adjustment pains and then lockdowns to combat the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, this government is currently dead set on rejoining IMF’s $6 billion Extended Fund Facility .
Is China slowly turning its back on BRI projects in Pakistan? – Indian Defence Research Wing idrw.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from idrw.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
China appears to be backing away from its initial financial promises to Pakistan under Beijing-financed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a US$60 billion infrastructure building plan, amid rising corruption and militant attacks on Chinese engineers.
Islamabad [Pakistan], December 25 (ANI): China appears to be backing away from its initial financial promises to Pakistan under Beijing-financed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a US$60 billion infrastructure building plan, amid rising corruption and militant attacks on Chinese engineers.