Head of the local CPEC authority, Khalid Mansoor accused the US of conspiring against the multibillion-dollar CPEC project coupled with Pakistan’s old-time rival India. He made this direct charge while addressing the CPEC Summit at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA).
“From the point of view of the emerging geo-strategic situation, one thing is clear: the United States supported by India is inimical to CPEC. It will not let it succeed. That’s where we have to take a position,” said the special assistant to the prime minister on CPEC affairs during his speech.
He further added that the United States and India continue to “make attempts to maneuver Pakistan out of” the very beneficial Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) of China under which the Chinese government has been investing a great deal in about 70 countries.
“There’s no way Pakistan will forgo any of its benefits. It has more than once burnt its fingers in (the Western) alliance in the past,” he said, elaborating that any attempts to weaken the Beijing’s strategic influence in the region will definitely fail.
Islamabad is the seventh largest recipient of Chinese overseas development financing with 71 projects worth $27.3 billion currently underway as part of CPEC. Many Western think tanks and commentators have termed CPEC an economic trap that has already resulted in bloated public debt levels and disproportionately high Chinese influence in the domestic economy.
Talking about his detailed dialogues with the US Embassy on CPEC, Mr. Mansoor said, “I had a very, very detailed discussion with the American embassy people. I told them CPEC is available for them as well. They have also expressed their wish that they would like to develop some kind of involvement and see how it can be beneficial for both countries,”
He also hinted on the efforts that Islamabad is making to include Taliban-led Afghanistan in the multibillion dollar CPEC project, as it would help the war-torn country in gaining financial stability and developing economic connectivity between Afghanistan and Pakistan and with other neighboring countries, including Iran.