China's overland Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road Thread
- Thread starter SampanViking
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Brigadier
- Western Route: Duad khel Interchange North Loop Under construction, 285 Km D I Khan Islamabad Motorway which is part of 2493 km China Western Route for Gwadar Port
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Brigadier
Canadian Company Solar Canada is Investing $100 Million dollars in 's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the Solar Energy Sector - Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan.
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Pakistan, China drop 5 CPEC energy projects
In-depth analysis reveals plans technically unfeasible, New projects to be included in list
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and China agreed to revise and update the list of CPEC Energy Cooperation Project, removing 5 pending projects with the combined capacity of 3470 Megawatt, it is learnt reliably here Thursday.
In February it was agreed between the Chinese and Pakistani experts to drop five projects, mostly coal power projects, from the CPEC energy list and finally in the recent One Road One Belt (OBOR) forum it was formally dropped from the list, official sources told The Nation.
The projects which were dropped includes Muzaffargarh Coal Power Project (1,320MW), Salt Range Mine Mouth Power Project (300MW) including mining, Gaddani Power Park (1,320MW), Sunnec Wind Farm (50MW), Chichoki Mallian Combined-cycle Power Plant (525MW). Sources said that these projects were analyzed in-depth by energy experts from both sides and it was decided to remove these projects by declaring them technically unfeasible.
However the source said that with the removal of these projects the CPEC installed capacity agreed under the previous energy agreement will remain unchanged. More projects are expected to be inducted soon based on feasibility and mutual agreement of experts from both sides.
The Punjab government was planning to construct two coal-fired projects with the combined generation capacity of 2,640MW in Rahim Yaar Khan and Muzaffargarh districts of Punjab. Both the projects are part of CPEC projects and Punjab Power Development Board (PPDB) is the supervising agency. Similarly 525MW thermal power plant at Chichoki Mallian was first initiated in 2008 during the tenure of PPP government with the cost of $354.5 million, however it was never materialised. After the current government came into power it was included in the CPEC energy project list.
In the progress review meeting of the CPEC projects, held in February, the Punjab government was pursing the federal government to include the coal projects in the CPEC umbrella projects. The main logic presented by the Punjab government is that India’s share of energy from coal amounts to 70,000MW and Europe generates 60 percent of its energy using coal, and 65 percent electricity generated in the world is generated from coal. The source said that adding unfeasible projects to the CPEC list will affect the financial health of the country. The updated list of the projects is now available on the CPEC website.
When asked that how the capacity of CPEC projects will not affect from the decision, the source said new projects will be added to the portfolio and majority of them will be on Hydro electric generations. The Pakistani and Chinese authorities in the last JCC held in China agreed to include hydro power projects, in the northern Indus region, in the CPEC umbrella projects. Hydle is much cleaner and cheaper source of energy and an MOU to evaluate the feasibility of these projects has already been signed between the two countries.
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Brigadier
Pakistan boosting maritime security to counter Indian threat to CPEC
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is beefing up its maritime security to secure its territorial waters in the face of new challenges posed by India, which is trying to undermine China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
India is not only trying to make the multi-billion dollars CPEC project a territorial dispute but also threatening it through its naval build-up.
“Pakistan is trying to bolster its naval capabilities because of India’s efforts to undermine the CPEC,” official sources said on Monday. For this purpose, Pakistan is in process of enhancing the capabilities of its navy through the collaboration of China and Turkey.
Sources said the Pakistan Navy is building eight more multipurpose submarines with Chinese technical cooperation. Likewise, it has signed a landmark agreement with Turkey last week under which Pakistan will build new multipurpose war vessels through a joint venture.
Pakistan and Turkey have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) on the four MLGEM Ada-class corvettes project. The LoI was signed by Defence Production Secretary Lt-Gen Muhammad Owais and Turkish undersecretary SSM Prof Dr Ismail Demir.
On the other hand, the Pakistan Navy spokesperson sounded optimistic that the ongoing visit of Naval Chief Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah to China was expected to go a long way in promoting maritime security and stability in the region and greatly enhance the bilateral cooperation between the two navies.
The spokesperson said the deep-rooted naval collaboration between the Pakistan Navy and PLA (Navy) has become even more important in the backdrop of the CPEC project to effectively handle complex challenges in the maritime domain. Commander PLA (N) China Vice Admiral Shen Jinlong during interaction with Admiral Zakaullah highly appreciated the efforts of the Pakistan Navy in maintaining collaborative security in the Indian Ocean and beyond.
Both the naval leaders agreed to further enhance interaction between both navies through port calls, bilateral naval exercises and exchange of training programs at various levels.
Pakistan and China have very high stakes in the CPEC which plan to tap the potential of Pakistan’s deep-sea Gwadar port through networks of new roads as well as railways in order to connect with at least 62 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.
On its part, India is trying to undermine the CPEC for a variety of reasons including geopolitical and geoeconomics, and has been making concerted efforts to destabilise and isolate Pakistan.
Foreign policy and security experts believe that India has been showing its frustration over the CPEC since Pakistan and China signed the bilateral accord in 2013.
They say that since then, India has been making all out attempts to undermining the CPEC project by projecting it politically controversial which Pakistan rejected as part of Indian propaganda.
Economically, they believe India was strongly feeling marginalised because of the Gwadar port, which they viewed as a direct challenge to India’s main shipping hub, Mumbai port. India, they said, would be at a great disadvantage because of the Gwadar port’s economic potential.
They say that new challenges from India have prompted Pakistan to take requisite steps not only to secure the CPEC project on land but also in its territorial waters.
Blackstone
Brigadier
Article is a bit too alarmist on Indian intentions. It's clear India sees CPEC is a zero-sum game and objects to China building BRI through disputed territory, but India attacking CPEC, including Gwadar sounds farfetched at this point in time.
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Brigadier
They are.... we all know Indians are actively involve in destabilizing the region through their spies & consulates in Afghanistan & Iran in the border areas near to Pakistan.
Recently a coward attack was conducted on poor labors working on a site in suburbs of Gawadar, killing 6. the Target was carefully chosen as the labors belongs to the Interior Sindh, so they can use this incident as a flame.
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As part of the ongoing reconciliation process, 26 militants belonging to various outlawed militant groups surrendered their weapons to authorities in Balochistan's Khuzdar district on Friday.
“More militants will surrender before the authorities in the days to come," Balochistan government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar had said on April 21, when 434 militants submitted their weapons and surrendered to the authorities.
The militants surrendered at a ceremony organised at the Kalat Scouts campus in Khuzdar. PML-N Senator Niamatullah Khan Zehri, Commandant Kalat Scouts Colonel Rizwan Afzal and other officials participated in the weapons laying ceremony.
The militants laid down their weapons under the leadership of commander Omar Baloch, who belonged to an outlawed organisation.
"We are denouncing violence and will now work for the country and nation," Baloch said.
During the last two years, more than 1,600 militants have abandoned a bloody armed struggle against the state.
"We are civilian soldiers of Pakistan," Senator Zehri told the function. He said that enemies of Pakistan were bent upon hatching conspiracies and carrying out subversive activities inside Balochistan.
Col Rizwan welcomed the 'reformed' ex-militants and urged them to work for the peace and development of not just Balochistan but of greater Pakistan.
The largest province of the country by area is home to a low-level insurgency by Indian Backed ethnic Baloch separatists.