Pakistan a 'good brother,' says Xi Jinping, claims CPEC corridor will help forge closer ties

Guwahati: China and Pakistan are "good brothers" and "good partners", said Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday revealing that the economic corridor between the two countries, which passes through territory claimed by India, holds great importance in forming closer ties between Beijing and Islamabad.

Talking to his Pakistani counterpart, Arif Alvi, Xi termed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as "a landmark project" under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and claimed it is of "great importance to promoting in-depth development of the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and forging a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future".

New Delhi has constantly opposed the CPEC as it passes across Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir; however, Beijing has paid little attention to New Delhi's serious reservations about the CPEC and has inflated money and resources in building infrastructure projects under the flagship economic corridor.

Notably, the CPEC is among the new irritants and concerns for New Delhi in its ties with Beijing, which China has refused to address while claiming that it is only an economic project.

Xi's complete message for Alvi was released at the end of the two-day 2nd China-Pakistan foreign ministers' strategic dialogue held in the southern Chinese province of Hainan on Friday.

Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi co-hosted the event.

In his message to Alvi, Xi seemed elated about ties between the two "iron brothers" – a phrase often repeated by both countries to describe the bilateral ties.

China president Xi appreciated that Alvi sent a congratulatory letter to the opening of the Second Conference of the CPEC Political Parties Joint Consultation Mechanism, which "fully demonstrated that Alvi attaches great importance to and supports the China-Pakistan relationship and construction of the CPEC."

As per reports, the consultation was held simultaneously with the foreign ministers' dialogue.

"China and Pakistan are good brothers and partners who share a special friendship," President Xi said.

The frequent meeting of political parties from both the countries is conducive to steadily advancing the construction of the CPEC as well as high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

"China stands ready to work with Pakistan to build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future, jointly promote regional solidarity and cooperation, and safeguard the good momentum of peace and development in the region," the Chinese President added.

Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on South Asian issues at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, alleged that India has a narrow perspective towards Sino-Pakistan friendship.

"India has adopted a hostile attitude toward the cooperation between China and Pakistan and believes that China and Pakistan will soon unite against India; it's a rather 'narrow-minded' perspective that does not conform to India's position of a big country in South Asia," Fu told media.

Wang and Qureshi met at a time when the ties of both Beijing and Islamabad with New Delhi are at an all-time low amid the Sino-India border tension in eastern Ladakh, and (with Pakistan) on the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir and terrorism.

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