Pakistan has categorically rejected baseless and misguided remarks made by the official spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in an effort to politicize the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
According to Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar, the CPEC is a transformative project, and it heralds stability, reciprocal cooperation, and shared development for the region. CPEC offers a means for the people of the region to diverge from zero-sum thinking because it is the centrepiece of the Belt and Road Initiative and a defining characteristic of the Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership.
He claimed that Pakistan has been able to overcome the energy and infrastructure bottlenecks that once limited growth and development thanks to China’s investment in the CPEC.
Asim Iftikhar claimed that attempts to criticise CPEC demonstrate India’s insecurity and hegemonic agenda, which have long impeded socioeconomic development in South Asia.
It is noted that, despite India’s erroneous claim that CPEC violates its “sovereignty and territorial integrity,” India has been illegitimately occupying the state of Jammu & Kashmir for more than seven decades, in flagrant violation of international law and pertinent UNSC resolutions. India has also committed gross and widespread human rights violations and implemented blatant territorial and demographic changes in the occupied territory.
According to the spokesperson, India’s attempts to deceive the world about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and conceal its atrocities against the Kashmiri people will never be successful. He claimed that India has been warned to stop making unfounded claims about a region that it still forcibly occupies in violation of international law.
According to Asim Iftikhar, the Jammu and Kashmir conflict is still an issue on the UN agenda that is recognized internationally, and the only way to resolve it is for the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.