Sharif sings China’s tune, rejects India’s objections over Economic Corridor

A day after China asserted that the ambitious $46 billion Economic Corridor project will “not target any third party”, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that China has rejected India’s objection over the project, and charged that the neighbouring countries can’t tolerate development and prosperity in Pakistan.

“I want to inform you that China has already rejected the objections,” Mr Sharif said at the All Parties Conference in Quetta in Baluchistan, Pakistan.

Earlier, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said on May 31 in New Delhi that Mr Modi had raised the China-Pakistan economic corridor issue during his visit to China, and told the Chinese leadership that the project wasn’t acceptable. Furthermore, the Indian government had also summoned the Chinese envoy to protest against the project.

After Mrs Swaraj raised India’s concerns over the project, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that the economic corridor project was a major cooperation framework between China and Pakistan, the two all-whether friends, and it would not target any third party in the region and neither affect China’s stand on the issue.

Mr Sharif said that some people wanted to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but he was happy that the project got a positive nod from all political parties of Pakistan. He congratulated and thanked the Pakistani leadership for owning the project.

Indirectly referring to India, Mr Sharif said that Pakistan’s enemies were hatching a conspiracy to weaken Pakistan’s morale, and added that they were jealous of development and prosperity in the region.

The 3000-km long corridor links southern Gwadar port in Pakistan to the Arabian Sea in China’s western Xinjiang region. Despite India’s objections, the project was launched during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Islamabad on April 20.

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