Pakistan plans trade corridor with China via PoK, snubs India

NEW DELHI: In what could be viewed as a deliberate snub to India, China and Pakistan held a meeting on Indian soil to discuss expediting the implementation of the China-Pakistan economic corridor that passes through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Pakistan’s National Security and Foreign Affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz met Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Delhi on Sunday and the China-Pakistan economic corridor project figured during the discussions, diplomatic sources said.

The two ministers are in India for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) being held in Gurgaon November 11-12. The 2,000-km corridor will connect China’s Xinjiang province with Pakistan’s Gwadar port via PoK.

India had earlier protested against the proposed corridor and other Chinese-funded projects in the area apart from the presence there of Chinese soldiers. Officials said that the two foreign ministers emphasised during their meeting that “China and Pakistan are all-weather, strategic cooperation partners”.

The two ministers are learnt to have discussed the situation in Afghanistan and its stability after the withdrawal of US troops next year. It is not known whether China raised the issue of terrorism in Afghanistan originating from Pakistan.

On Sunday night, Wang had publicly joined India in demanding a stable and terror-free Afghanistan following a Russia-India-China foreign ministers meeting. Meanwhile, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Monday asserted that the government would see what could be done in the future with regard to the meeting between Aziz and Kashmiri separatist leaders.

He was responding to a query by a reporter on BJP president Rajnath Singh’s criticism that the UPA government had committed a “diplomatic blunder” by allowing Aziz to meet separatists on Indian soil and demanded that the talks be stopped.

Countering this, Shinde pointed out, “Even in their period also the Kashmiri separatists have met (Pakistani leaders). Precedent has been set.”

Speaking at the inaugural of 11th ASEM ministerial meeting on Monday morning, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said in his opening remarks that the aim should be to take ASEM “into homes and offices of people across Asia and Europe and allow us to bring in members of civil society, business, media and parliaments as our partners in strengthening ASEM as a bridge between the two continents.”

He referred to a meeting of senior officials that has recommended the setting up of a working group on press and public awareness strategy.