Will CPEC Lead To Kashmir Resolution?

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor may pave way for peace between both India and Pakistan as geoeconomics can positively impact geopolitics.

- Riyaz Wani

On March 11, 2017, a seminar titled ‘Impact of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Kashmir’ was organized in Srinagar by the newly floated think tank The Kashmir Institute. Fahad Shah, the Director of the Institute, gathered a panel of experts to debate the issue in the light of the lingering conflict over J&K between India and Pakistan.

Andrew Small, the well-known author of China-Pakistan axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics, addressed the seminar on Skype. In his 13 minute speech, Small drew a broad outline of the new CPEC-driven geo-politics of the region and its potential fallout on Kashmir.

“China has made it clear to Pakistan that in order for CPEC to be a success, it will require some degree of stable relations with its neighbours, particularly with Afghanistan and India,” Small said. “As a result, different set of pressures exist around CPEC, coming from Chinese side as to how Pakistan handles certain issues of high sensitivity including some of the Kashmiri militant groups operating out of Pakistan and in a certain sense how Pakistan handles Kashmir issue itself”.

However, according to Small, the CPEC’s “direct cross-border dimensions”, in Kashmir, “are likely to be much farther offin future”.

“But I think CPEC does have very consequential impact on the overall framework of India-Pakistan relations, and China’s role in these disputes and equities that it has in these disputes,” Small said adding the dispute between India and Pakistan involves China even more directly than it ever did in the past.