China-pakistan security cooperation: China and Pakistan have decided to work jointly to further strengthen security and defense cooperation and to control terrorism. This information was shared by Chinese state agency Xinhua on Thursday (4 September). This step is based on the joint action plan prepared by both countries.

The scheme came to light at a time when Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited Beijing on a visit to China and attended several important meetings along with other top officials including President Xi Jinping. During the meeting, China urged Pakistan to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens working in the development works of billions of dollars running in the country. In the last few years, the Chinese employees working in Pakistan have been attacked by terrorists, which has increased security concern.

Belt and road project and security challenge in front of Pakistan

Pakistan is an important center of China’s global belt and road project. However, security threats to Chinese employees and projects there are the cause of tension between the two countries. According to Xinhua’s report, Xi Jinping said, “China supports Pakistan’s struggle against terrorism and hopes that Pakistan will take effective steps to ensure safety of Chinese employees, projects and institutions. This will create a safe environment for bilateral cooperation.” Xi made this comment in Tianzin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Conference, which included leaders from more than 20 non-Western countries.

China raised this demand

Pakistan has deployed thousands of army, paramilitary forces and police to protect Chinese projects and employees. Despite this, China wants Pakistan to allow Chinese security personnel to work in the country. In the last decade, China has developed power houses, roads and Port Gwadar of the Indian Ocean in Pakistan. But many schemes of belt and road projects of about $ 60 billion have been stopped due to security concerns. Terrorist and separatist groups have continued to target Chinese employees, causing the need to further strengthen the security strategies of the two countries.

At the 25th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in Tianjin city of China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the plane session, made a big statement on connectivity and sovereignty. PM Modi said that connectivity should always respect sovereignty and regional integrity. This is the basic principle of SCO Charter. Connectivity that bypasses sovereignty cannot be trusted and has no importance.

This statement is directly considered a gesture on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which passes through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). This project is the most important part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and India has been opposing it for a long time. PM Modi further said that India believes that strong connectivity ensures not only business, but also trust and development. From this point of view, India is working on the Chabahar Port and the International North-South Transport Corridor (Instc), which will strengthen connectivity to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

He said that India has always been trying that the SCO is not limited to governments, but it should be linked to common people, youth, researchers and startups so that the organization’s reach and impact can increase.

What is Bri?

BRI (BELT and Road Initiative), which is called One Belt, One Road in Chinese, is a major global initiative of China. It started with the objective that Chinese companies should manufacture transport, energy and other infrastructure projects abroad. These projects are funded by loans from Chinese development banks.

Its main goal is to improve connectivity to the rest of the world of China and thus the business and economy get strengthened. In a way, it can be called the new Silk Road of the 21st century, which creates a trade route from China to Europe via Middle East.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the idea in 2013 during visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia. After this, this initiative progressed rapidly and many big projects were created under it, such as railways in Kenya and Laos and power stations in Pakistan and Indonesia.

Why is India against Bri?

India has opposed BRI from the beginning and the biggest reason for this is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). CPEC is the flagship project of Bri, which passes through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). India believes that this is a violation of its sovereign rights, because Pok is an integral part of India.

The Government of India says that it has repeatedly lodged a formal protest against the countries concerned on this issue and asked them to stop such activities. The Ministry of External Affairs has made it clear that the government’s stand is clear and stable. At the same time, the Government of India continuously keeps a close watch on every development related to this project and takes all the necessary steps to protect the security and integrity of the country.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned from a two -day visit to Maldives. This journey was special because he was invited as the chief guest at the Independence Day celebrations of Maldives. This was the first high -level visit of a foreign leader after President Mohammad Mujju came to power. During this tour, India announced a large credit line of $ 565 million (about Rs 4,800 crore) for Maldives, which will be used in projects related to hospitals, schools, housing and infrastructure.

Along with this, it was also agreed to start talks between India and Maldives regarding the free trade agreement (FTA). Maldives President Mujju termed PM Modi’s visit as historic and termed India as the most trusted partner and ‘first responder’.

Mujju came to power by giving the slogan of ‘India Out’

Mujju came to power only by giving India Out slogan, after which India also had to recall its army and now they themselves want India to have a free trade deal and the people of India should go there as tourists as before so that the economy of Maldives remains on the track.

China shocks, resentment in media

China’s concern has increased due to the growing proximity between India-Maldives. China’s official mouthpiece Global Times has reacted sharply to the Indian media coverage regarding this tour. The report said that India is showing it to weaken China’s influence in Maldives.

Kian Feng, an expert at Beijing-based Tsinghua University, described the attitudes of the Indian media as ‘old thinking’ and said that it shows the mentality like ‘Zero-S-Game’.

China is still making this claim

China also reminded that President Mujju went on a visit to Beijing in January and then described China as the closest friend of Maldives. Mujju then said that Maldives supports China’s efforts for global peace and justice. However, the current developments show that Mujju’s foreign policy is now moving towards balance and relations with India are being given priority again.

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Trans-Caspian International Transport Route: The scope of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is constantly increasing on Global Trade Infrastructure. India is looking for another route to reduce dependence on this.

One such way is the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor. Under the leadership of Kazakhstan, work is going on fast. Let us know that China announced Belt and Road Initiative in the year 2013. Its purpose is to connect many continents by land and sea route. The flow of goods, capital, technology and human resources has been promoted among the countries included in its network.

India dislikes BRI

Actually, India does not like some BRI things such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to go through the way of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK). India has always opposed it. India says that this violates their regional sovereignty. In 2024, Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in an interview to ANI, “We are not in favor of CPEC.” We are against it. This is against our regional integrity and sovereignty. However, now the route on which work is going on starts not with Beijing, but from Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan is investing a lot on this network

According to the Economic Times, Kazakhstan is becoming a logistics hub of Eurasia through this middle corridor. India is not directly connected to this network, but by moving fast on this, India can get a chance to reduce dependence on BRI and diversify its trade routes. The Transport Ministry of Kazakhstan said that in 2024, traffic on TITR has increased by 62 percent to 4.5 million tonnes. Container transport increased by 170 percent to 56,500 teu, with 35,600 teu transportation on the China-Europe route, which is 27 times more than the previous year. By 2025, the target is 5.2 million tonnes and 70,000 TEU.

According to The Economic Times report, Kazakistan is investing extensively in its logistic network. In 2025 alone, its plan is to modernize 13,000 km long roads and 6,100 km railway route. Apart from this, the scope of six airports is also to be carried forward and there is a plan to create new marine terminals including a container hub with a capacity of 240,000 Teus in Aktau. By 2029, 11,000 km of other railway lines will also be upgraded.

What does it mean to India?

95 percent of India’s foreign trade is through sea route. Its value is 67 percent. The Suez Canal route to trade with Europe, North Africa and America matters a lot. 35 percent of India’s total foreign trade is done through this route. This Suez Canal creates a sea route for trade between Europe and Asia by connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Now, since the dominance of Huti rebels in the Red Sea, there is an atmosphere of struggle, most of the global container shipping companies are catching the route around the Suez Canal and instead the Cape of Good Hope. Due to this, the cost of freight has increased by up to 122 percent.

TITR is a land-community multimodal alternative, which can reduce traffic on the sea route, reduce the cost of freight and Indian expotors, especially to export unruly goods in European markets. The most poppy is that Titr connects with India’s International North-South Transport Corridor (Instc) which is a 7,200 km long network that connects Mumbai to Europe through Iran and Russia. Titr and Instc may be different, but they share geographical nodes in the Caspian Sea and Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan. In such a situation, the supply of goods from India can also be done through the Instc and the TITR segment can be adopted to reach Central Asia, Türkiye and Europe.

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