Islamabad: Beijing has rejected several of Islamabad’s proposals related to direct investments in multiple sectors under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), including energy, tourism, water management and climate change, minutes of a key panel meeting indicate.
The signed minutes of the CPEC’s Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) bring to fore the challenges both sides face in deepening economic ties.
The JCC meeting took place in October 2022, and on July 31 of this year, Ahsan Iqbal, the former planning minister of Pakistan, and the vice premier of China signed the minutes. The draft shared with Beijing by Pakistan and the final minutes signed by both sides were different in many ways.
China disagreed with a host of measures Pakistan proposed. The final document indicates that Islamabad has given up its opposition to a number of Chinese demands in order to address Beijing’s concerns.
China has rejected collaborating on cross-border tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and coastal areas, according to details of the minutes cited by a local daily. According to the report, China did not concur with Pakistan's demand that water resource management, climate change mitigation, and urban infrastructure development be incorporated into the CPEC framework.