The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is expected to be a game-changer in South Asia. As part of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), CPEC is a $62 billion infrastructure development project, in which Afghanistan would likely be part of it. This project is aimed to connect China’s Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s Gawadar Port.

“China is willing to help facilitate dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan, while also promoting the extension of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan,” Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu said on Tuesday. He said this during a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani’s Special Envoy for Pakistan Umer Daudzai.

In his recent article, “China’s New Development Pattern: Opportunities for Afghanistan, Source of Confidence for Whole World,” Mr. Yu writes Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need for China to form a “new development pattern centering on internal circulation with the domestic and international markets promoting each other.”

http://www.afghanistantimes.af/china-mulls-including-afghanistan-in-62b-cpec/