China on Monday termed as baseless the reports that it has soughtadditional guarantees from Pakistan for sanctioning a whopping USD6-billion loan for a railway line project and backing away from its initialfinancial commitments to the multi-billion dollars China-Pakistan EconomicCorridor due to weakening financial position of its all-weather ally.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian also rejected reports thatChina was backing away from its initial financial promises to Pakistanunder the USD 60 billion CPEC amid rising corruption and militants’ attacks.
“These reports are baseless,” Zhao told a media briefing here. “I wouldalso like to stress that against the global economic recession, China’sinput in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) including the CPEC has notreduced but rather increased against the odds,” he said.
“Over the first three quarters, China’s direct financial investment in BRIcountries increased by around 30 per cent, offering China’s support to manyBRI partner countries in their effort to fight the epidemic and recovertheir economy,” Zhao said. The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port inPakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagshipproject of China’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar BRI. India has expressedconcern over the project as a portion of the CPEC runs throughPakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Read Top Stories
Pakistan’s media recently reported that China has sought additionalguarantees before sanctioning a USD 6-billion loan for the Main Line-1(ML-1) railway line project due to Islamabad’s weakening financialposition. The ML-1 project, which includes dualisation and upgradation ofthe 1,872-km railway track from Peshawar to Karachi, is a major milestonefor the second phase of the CPEC.
Source:link
