Pakistan to strengthen security to safeguard China’s commercial interests

Pakistan has decided to strengthen its security in order to safeguard China’s commercial interests. This comes after both sides agreed that a challenging security situation is being faced by China’s citizens, projects and institutions in Pakistan, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Islamabad and Beijing have agreed to further deepen their cooperation in the security horizon, according to the understanding reached between the two countries during the 11th Joint Cooperation Committee meeting, a decision-making body of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It took the two countries over ten months to form a consensus draft of the outcomes of the 11th JCC held in October last year, particularly on the issues of cooperation in various areas, including security. Last week, Pakistan reviewed the implementation status of CPEC. It was decided that interim Planning Minister Sami Saeed would hold a special meeting with Pakistani security officials to review the implementation of the security-related measures agreed with China during the 11th JCC, according to the planning ministry officers, as per The Express Tribune. The final document’s wording suggested that the Chinese had taken the issue of the security of its citizens and commercial interests very seriously. A Pakistani official involved in these deliberations for the past many months said that was why both sides had agreed to take extraordinary measures. The documents read: “Both sides acknowledged that the Chinese personnel, projects, and institutions in Pakistan are facing a ‘challenged security situation’.” Many Chinese citizens working on the CPEC and other projects have been targeted in Pakistan in recent years. These attacks have prompted a serious review of the institutional arrangements put in place to protect Chinese interests and lives in Pakistan. In addition to security, the lack of implementation of the agreed policies and unsolicited proposals being pushed by the Pakistani side have hampered work on the CPEC, as per The Express Tribune.