At the SCO meeting held here on Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif advocated for Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, stating that such connectivity projects should not be viewed through a “narrow political prism”—ostensibly in reference to India’s reluctance to support it.
He added that initiatives like China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which are components of the bigger project, should be expanded in his opening remarks at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.
India’s response to China’s “unilateral” strategy has been largely lackluster. Furthermore, because the China-Pakistan corridor entails developing infrastructure in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, it has been consistently criticized for breaching its territorial integrity.