Pakistan attended the June 9-10 SCO Summit in Qingdao, China, for the first time as a full member of the organization. Going forward, Pakistan will play a proactive role as a vital member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and contribute its share in making the SCO a success story.
Pakistan occupies a geopolitically important location at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia. Its geo-strategic location makes it a land of connectivity, a bridge by which Central Asia, Russia and China can reach the warm waters of the Arabian Sea.
Pakistan is developing state-of-the-art infrastructure within the country as well as international connectivity. The planned Gwadar-Termez expressway will connect Gwadar, Pakistan, to Central Asia. This 650km road will be completed in the very near future. The route from Termez, Uzbekistan, to Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, will also go to Chaman, Pakistan, via Kandahar.
Once this project is finished, Balochistan will be better connected to areas near it, and Quetta will stand connected to the rest of Pakistan as well as the Central Asian region by road.
An expressway from Peshawar to Torkham on the Pakistani-Afghan border and then to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, is also under construction and should be completed very soon, when it will connect Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and Termez with Pakistan, giving the country two routes to access Central Asia.
A railway network connecting all major cities of Pakistan from north to south and to Iran is going to launch soon. The railway linkage will be extended to China in the next phase.
The Gwadar deep-sea natural port is already partially operational and extension work is in progress. Most of the projects are completed; some are in a well-advanced stage or nearly completed, while others are in the pipeline.
Road and rail networks, airports and seaports are rapidly developing. These will reduce distances tremendously for trade within Pakistan, cut the costs of transportation drastically and save transportation time to a huge extent. This will definitely be an additional edge in competitiveness in trade through Pakistan.
English is an official language in Pakistan and is widely understood, reducing communication barriers to international trade. The service industry in Pakistan is developing at a fast pace – fuel stations, hotels, and restaurants of various tastes such as Central Asian and Chinese are mushrooming.
The hotel industry is also picking up. The domestic transport industry has also witnessed good progress.
The government of Pakistan is formulating attractive policies and a flexible approach to facilitate its international partners. These policies may be bilateral or multilateral, based on mutual consultations.
Pakistan is well prepared to expand cooperation with all of the SCO’s member states in all dimensions.
The people of Pakistan are friendly, open and waiting for new opportunities of “Peace, Harmony and Development.”
Country had zero leadership (uneducated and corrupted ) and failing insitutions. Just mere hoping for geography amd Chinese help won’t do anything. Rich have to pay taxes , corruption must go down, unbiased accountability must be installed and improved education system would have to be enforced at gun point before any hope would be generated. Otherwise get ready to borrow another
$100B loan.
Your comments shows pro Iranian anti Sunni hatred. Sorry for your negative mind. Your beloved Iranian mass killer decoit invader Nadir shah killed millions and looted people wealth worth billions $$ and you equals Mongols infidels like halaku khan as Sunni who destroyed Baghdad???
Malik Atta
Many thanks for your kind words.
CPEC will bring a revolution in Pakistan that will do much good, but not the type what the Pak Muslim capitalists have hoped for.
Syed Abbas ha ha ha .your point of view is quite unique and refreshing
So tell us what is plan A with land locked Afganistan where Chinese can not already get? It is very sure that India will get no where.
Zamir Awan
I am with you on exploring common rather than differences. Rather than political or regional polities, I am more interested in the Islamic Ummah and global humanity.
While Islam of the Kaliphs is tribal, the Mohammedan Islam is universal, with NO concept of patriotism for a nation – "a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture ..”. Pakistan is none of the above.
Nation is an agrarian concept, Islam of Mohammed is trade based that unites the world breaking borders, breaking tribes and nations to unite humanity into one.
The fact that religion or nation do not constitute a basis of a political entity today has been already proven by breakup of Pakistan. And as someone wisely put it "patriotism is the refuge of the scoundral". Btw, our Prophet preferred Medina to his home base of Mecca, so much for patriotism.
But could anyone tell me, what is "Islamic" about Pakistan today except for its nukes?
Syed Abbas : Thank you for being patriot with Pakistan. We need to explore common grounds more, instead of differences.
I am more optimistic about Pakistan than you are, but the kind of Pakistan we seek may differ.
I welcome the presence of China as it has the potential to change Pakistan fundamentally. While Muslims were able to terrorize the world for 1,400 years and continue to do so, the Chinese were the only ones in history to have put Kaliphate types in their place and forcefully. The Baghdad, today Xinkiang.
Well, I welcome your comments and just want to say, that I have expressed my point of view. It is up to you, agree or did-agree. I possesses unlimited tolerance. But I am optimistic about future of Pakistan.
The reality is that Pakistan whom Mao called "my Israel" serves Chinese leadership well at present as it did in the past – being an agent as it was once 50 years ago with Nixon visit. Today, CPEC is only a plan B, since there is no peace yet in Afghanistan.
Dream aside, neither geography nor ideology favour Pakistan as the "link" of BRI connectivity between Asia and Europe.
First, Geography. Gwadar is a terminus. To link with Europe by road, Pakistan needs to resolve differences with Afghanistan and Iran. Pipelines to carry oil and gas to China aside, cargo road transport via curvaceous, hilly, snowy and dangerous KKH is problematic in winter. Flatter roads via Tajikistan to Iran are smoother and all weather.
Second, ideology. 3/4 of Pak Muslims are Sunnis yearning for the dreaded ways of the Rightly Guided whose misguided Tariffs (Arabic word of Kaliphate origin) killed the first Silk Road, and the free loot Muslim innovation with it. Tired of Asian industry being decimated by Kaliphate the Mongols were obliged to destroy it totally in 1258. The Kaliphate withheld world progress that resumed only when Christians expelled Muslims and their partners in crime the Jews from spain, and were then free to find new routes to Asia that ended Kaliphate habit of living off others.
On the plus side, China does have local champions. All the "Sinic" racial types in Pakistan – the Baltistanis, the Gilgitis, the Hazara, are pro-trade Shia, and will gladly promote Chinese goals to enhance their protection from other Muslims.
Strangely enough India opposes China’s presence in Pakistan. It should welcome it. While Toynbee’s other 4 civilizations (Hellenic West, Christian Russia, Indics, Sinics) lived in peace exchanging goods, people, money, skills, and ideas, Muslims were the only one who put their finger in any behind they could find. The others may have waited for good times for retribution, the Sinics were the only ones to put Muslims in their place forthwith – in 1258 Baghdad raze, and Timurlane 1399 ravage.
Muslims in Pakistan will misbehave as is their habit, and China is the best way to keep them in check. America only encouraged rift in south Asia. With Pakistan under Chinese thumb whose ruthless ways could do what India could not, there will be peace in the region after all.
Please send all the ME refugees to Stephenville Texas.
But Professor you underestimate the potential of Taliban both Pakistani and Afghani- essentially one and the same- to disrupt such grand designs. As long as they are on the loose the realising full connectivity benefits are doubtful.