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Read MoreThe sheer ambition and scale of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which was unveiled during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Islamabad, is truly staggering. China’s unprecedented investment commitment to the tune of $46bn gives some substance to the hyperbolic expression “higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the Indian Ocean and sweeter than honey,” that has come to define bilateral relations between China and Pakistan for many decades.
Sans Economics
President Xi’s visit, although touted as a visit with economics as its core objective, had an obvious strategic dimension; one that involves defence trade. Besides the promise of supplying Pakistan with eight submarines, it has emerged that China will provide 110 latest JF-17 Thunder fighter jets to Pakistan as the two countries forge closer defence cooperation. Also built on a transfer-of-technology basis, the JF-17 can be read as Pakistan’s response to India’s Rafale deal, coming on the heels of the latter. Shrouded between 51 agreements to boost economic cooperation during Xi’s trip, there are clear strategic undertones, belying the notion that the visit was not just about pure economics.
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
The visit and, more so, the nature of bilateral agreements between China and Pakistan have undoubtedly ruffled some feathers in the Indian strategic circles.An investment worth $28bn in new trade and investment deals is part of the mega $46bn that will be used to construct the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. The CPEC project will see the 3,000km trade route built over the next 15 years, with Chinese investments and companies building new roads and pipelines along the proposed route, which runs the length of Pakistan.
In the unfolding aftermath of the April 25 earthquake, the worst to hit Nepal in 80 years and one of the worst in all of South Asia, India has left no stone unturned to come to the rescue of its Himalayan neighbour and strategic partner.
India was the first nation to respond, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi convening a disaster response meeting in within hours of the quake.
“Nepal’s pain is our pain,” said Modi, “I have spoken to their prime minister and president and assured them that this country of 125 crore is with you.” keeping up the spirit of cooperation that was rekindled during Prime Minister Modi’s historic visit to Nepal in August last year.
Mr Modi has already spoken with about a dozen state chief ministers immediately after the earthquake.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament on April 27 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “knew of the incident before me and took swift action.” “Just five minutes before the earthquake, I was with the PM. He later called me about the earthquake and said there would be a meeting at 3 pm. The quick response that should have been shown by me as home minister was shown by the PM,” Mr Singh said in a statement in the Lok Sabha on the disaster that has killed over 3,700.
Distressing times are indeed true tests of friendship. And India is more than ready to do its best as the countries are intimately bound up with fraternal and cultural ties and their joys and sorrows interlinked.
In the aftermath of the Nepal mega quake, countries from across the globe are pitching in different ways to alleviate the impact of the disaster-hit Nepal, with India leading the …
Read MoreStill reeling from the massive April 25 earthquake and continuing aftershocks of sizeable magnitude and number (34 till now), the weather gods are looking to test the mettle of Nepal’s …
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Read MoreWith Nepal descending deeper into a full-blown crisis and a potential humanitarian catastrophe in the wake of the massive earthquake, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that India will wipe the tears of every person in Nepal as his government has gone full steam to fast-track rescue, relief and rehabilitation for the quake victims.
“For 1.25 billion Indians, Nepal is their own country and India will make all efforts to wipe the tears of every person in Nepal, hold their hands and stand with them,” Mr Modi said his monthly radio address to the nation, entitled “Mann ki Baat.” He also spoke extensively about the recent calamities, including the storm in Bihar and the crisis in the war-torn Yemen.
The prime minister also recalled the Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat on January 2001, which killed nearly 20,000 people, and added stressed that the recent earthquake with its epicenter in Nepal has shaken the whole world.
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