Pakistani foreign minister expected to raise belt and road projects and disputed Kashmir in China meeting

Neighbouring India is an issue likely to come up when Shah Mahmood Qureshi visits Beijing

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor includes two new power projects and the biggest rail line in Pakistan’s history

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Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is expected to visit Beijing this week, according to Pakistani media. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:30pm, 19 Aug 2020Updated: 10:02pm, 19 Aug 2020

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is expected to visit Beijing this week to discuss more belt and road investment projects, as well as border troubles with their mutual neighbour India over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Qureshi is expected to discuss the next steps in cooperation on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a US$62 billion project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, according to a statement by China’s envoy to Pakistan last week.

Pakistani media reported this week that Qureshi would make a one-day visit on Thursday, although neither government has confirmed the trip. China’s foreign ministry did not reply to questions from the South China Morning Post regarding the trip.

Domestic media reports, citing unnamed sources, said Qureshi would discuss future economic corridor projects, regional security and Kashmir.

Both Beijing and Islamabad took issue with India’s moves in the disputed region of Kashmir last year, which remove special administrative status from the region and create two new Indian union territories, underlining claims to disputed border areas claimed by both China and Pakistan.

And both China and Pakistan have engaged in bloody conflicts in border regions since India’s moves last year, including a deadly border clash in the mountainous region of Ladakh between Indian and Chinese troops in June, which left 20 Indian soldiers dead.

According to Pakistani media reports, Qureshi said on Monday that cooperation platforms such as the CPEC and the Beijing-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation were part of his ministry’s strategy to push back against India’s “expansionist designs” in the conflict over Kashmir.