Pak moots SAARC-like group sans India

Dhaka hosts Chinese President with hopes of $40 billion investments

A leading newspaper in Pakistan on Wednesday reported that Islamabad has mooted a regional economic grouping in South Asia that would also include China, Iran and the Central Asian Republics, even as Dhaka prepared to host Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Pakistan is peeved at India using its regional influence to make other South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members to pull out of the regional forum’s summit that was to be held in Islamabad in November, the report in the Dawn newspaper said. Quoting diplomatic sources, the report said the new China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will be the key link between the countries of this new grouping, which would also counter India’s “controlling hold” on the SAARC. In 2014, India had stalled a Pakistan move to include China in SAARC.

In Bangladesh, one of the SAARC members that had pulled out of the summit, there were expectations that China might announce $40 billion investments during the Xi’s visit, the first by a Chinese head of state in 30 years.

In an interview to Chinese news agency Xinhua, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “China has become our largest trading partner and we consider China as a trusted partner in realising our dreams too. China is the leading generator of many of our mega-projects in terms of finance, capitalisation and technology,” she said.

Bangladesh is keen to be a part of the China’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. Hasina lauded the project and said Bangladesh was working to connect growth centres of the country with the rest of South Asia and create a single economic contiguity between South Asia and Southeast Asia. She said Bangladesh was seeking Chinese investments in the exclusive Economic and Industrial Zone in Chittagong.

Xi's visit to Dhaka comes at a time when New Delhi is trying to revive the moribund BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Economic Cooperation) to isolate Pakistan in the South Asian region. BIMSTEC members are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Meanwhile, New Delhi announced that Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi will be on a three-day state visit to India from October 17. Suu Kyi will also attend the BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach on October 16 in Goa.

On the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will also hold India-Russia Annual Summit on October 15, the Ministry of External Affairs said. It is likely that the two countries would strengthen their bilateral cooperation in defence and civil nuclear sectors.

In a recent interview to Russian news agency, India’s ambassador to Moscow Pankaj Saran said New Delhi has “conveyed” its views to Russia on Russia-Pakistan military cooperation. Saran said Russia’s military cooperation with Pakistan, which is a state that sponsors and practices terrorism as a state policy, is wrong. “It will only create further problems,” Saran said.

Russia has evinced interest in selling fighter jets and other military hardware to Pakistan. Last month, Russia and Pakistan had conducted military exercises.