ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed has said that Pakistan also welcomes the establishment of other ports in the region besides the development of Gwadar because the construction of ports and road infrastructure in the region will bring the people closer to each other.
The minister though didn’t mention a specific port other than Gwadar but it is pertinent to mention here that the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday signed a three-way transit agreement in Tehran to develop Iran’s southern port of Chabahar.
India will invest up to $500 million to develop Chabahar port in southern Iran which will expand a trade route for the land-locked countries of central Asia that bypasses Pakistan.
In his address at a seminar titled ‘Pakistan China Iron Brothers’ at Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation in Islamabad on Tuesday, the minister said that mega projects like development of Gwadar port and Chabahar port (although he didn’t name it) will steer the region out of poverty and backwardness and bring prosperity in the lives of the people.
The minister said that the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the project of peace and development.
Rasheed said that the convoys that will play on the corridor project will not conquer other countries but help provide basic amenities of life to the people. This road of peace will sprout the springs of development in the region, he said.
While giving a brief outlook of Pakistan-China historic relations, the Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary said that the two sides have developed a robust and flexible roadmap for multifaceted cooperation over the last few years.
The foreign secretary said that the leadership of both the countries over the last three years have made strenuous efforts to take the relationship to new heights.
Chaudhry said that the CPEC project is a clear manifestation of growing relations between Pakistan and China. He said that bilateral trade, people-to-people contacts and defense cooperation between the two countries has increased during the last three years.
Moreover, the foreign secretary said that both the countries have stood by each other through thick and thin. He said that China supported Pakistan in the wars of 1965 and 1971 while Pakistan supported re-approachment between China and the United States.
