Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has asserted that the US view on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will have “no impact” on the ambitious project, after a senior Trump administration official warned Islamabad that the project would take a toll on the cash-strapped country’s economy.
The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.
The project was launched in 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Islamabad and it now envisages investment of over USD 60 billion in different infrastructure projects of development in Pakistan.
In-charge of South Asia affairs at the US State Department, Alice Wells, last week said that the CPEC would take a toll on Pakistan’s economy in future.
