(Source: Russian Satellite News Agency 2025-08-25)
Recently, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Foreign Minister, co-chaired the sixth China-Pakistan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar of Pakistan in Islamabad. Both sides agreed to build an "upgraded version" of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor 2.0 and expand economic cooperation and investment within this framework.Wang Zhimin, researcher at the National Institute of Opening-up at the w88 casino in China and director of the Institute of Globalization and China Modernization, said in an interview with the Russian Sputnik News Agency that China hopes to drive Pakistan’s modernization process through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and at the same time enhance regional coordination and promote common development through “soft connectivity”.
When presiding over the sixth China-Pakistan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue, Wang Yi said that under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership has moved forward steadily and has become more strategically important. China supports Pakistan in pursuing development, strengthening its national strength, and fundamentally enhancing its ability to cope with internal and external challenges. Both sides should work together to safeguard the multilateral trading system and oppose unilateral bullying.
Dar said that the strategic dialogue between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China comes at the right time and is a concrete manifestation of the iron-clad friendship between the two countries. Friendship with China is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy. Pakistan looks forward to further deepening pragmatic cooperation between Pakistan and China in various fields and continuously enriching the connotation of Pakistan-China all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. Pakistan will firmly support the building of a Pakistan-China community with a shared future and the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” and the three major global initiatives.
Regarding China and Pakistan’s agreement to build an “upgraded version” of the Economic Corridor 2.0, Wang Zhimin said that Pakistan is the first country to establish an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership with China. The political relationship between the two countries has always been very stable, and this mutual trust provides an important guarantee for economic development. As the flagship project of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has been proposed for more than ten years since it was proposed in 2013. Now it is time for an upgrade. Therefore, Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out during this meeting that an “upgraded version” of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor 2.0 should be built.
Experts said that this time Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed to focus on the three major fields of industry, agriculture, and mining and strive to build the "Five Corridors", which is of great significance to China and Pakistan. Since the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was proposed, it has always taken a multi-dimensional transportation network as its core and promoted the flow and integrated development of regional economic factors through infrastructure connectivity. As the "Belt and Road" initiative enters the "high-quality development" stage, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has also begun to accelerate its upgrade, turning to emerging fields such as digital economy, network security, information technology, and artificial intelligence.
Wang Zhimin mentioned that third-party countries can also participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. From an international perspective, although the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor involves two countries, third-party market cooperation is an important innovative model in the construction of the “Belt and Road”. In other words, other third-party countries can also participate. For example, the British Parliament previously established a cross-party group on the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and Saudi Arabia invested US$20 billion to strengthen energy and infrastructure cooperation in the corridor.
"Generally speaking, we hope to drive Pakistan's modernization process through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and at the same time enhance regional coordination and promote common development through 'soft connectivity'." The expert concluded.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is an important pilot project for jointly building the “Belt and Road”. In 2013, the leaders of China and Pakistan jointly decided to launch the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. During President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in April 2015, the two sides determined the "1+4" cooperation layout centered on the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and focusing on Gwadar Port, transportation infrastructure, energy, and industrial cooperation. By the end of 2022, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has brought a total of US$25.4 billion in direct investment to Pakistan, created a total of 236,000 jobs, and helped Pakistan add 510 kilometers of highways, 8,000 megawatts of electricity, and 886 kilometers of national core transmission grids.
Attached original text link:https://sputniknews.cn/20250825/1067037319.html
