Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday reiterated Islamabad’s invitation to Türkiye, to become part of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Calling CPEC a “roaring success,” Sharif said it is “bound to increase the quantum of business transactions through sea and land between China and Pakistan.”
The Pakistani premier was addressing the launching ceremony of the fourth MILGEM Corvette Ship for the Pakistan Navy in the port city of Karachi.
Sharif said Ankara was a “natural partner” for the economic corridor, renewing Islamabad’s invitation to Türkiye to join the multi-billion-dollar project.
The two “iron-brother allies,” i.e. China and Pakistan, are celebrating 10 years of the CPEC and have begun the second phase.
Dubbed as a flagship of China’s multi-national Belt and Road Initiative, the CPEC, since its launch in 2014, has attracted more than $25 billion in various energy and infrastructure projects in the South Asian country, allowing the world’s second-largest economy to reach the warm waters of the Arabian Sea via the Gwadar Port in the southwestern Balochistan province.
In his remarks on the completion of 10 years of the project, China’s President Xi Jinping linked the CPEC to making “greater contributions” to peace in the broader region.
Last November, after launching the third of the four MILGEM Corvette Ships in Istanbul, Sharif had proposed extending the CPEC by inviting Türkiye to join the multi-billion-dollar project.
“China and Pakistan are great friends and we are experiencing and enjoying the benefits of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative of (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping). I would suggest let this be a cooperation between China, Pakistan, and Türkiye,” Sharif had told a news conference alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling it a “wonderful joint cooperation.”
Sharif also said such cooperation among the three nations “will bring prosperity and progress in this entire region.”
Sharif said he will be “very happy” to talk to his “Chinese friends” about such a move.
China and Pakistan are also mulling to extend the CPEC into Afghanistan.