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India opposes expansion of CPEC to Afghanistan
India on Thursday firmly objected to any attempt to expand the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into Afghanistan, saying that such a move would be “unacceptable.”
India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh made the government’s position clear in a statement to parliament. He said the government is aware of the recent China-Pakistan-Afghanistan trilateral meeting held in Beijing on May 21, where the expansion of regional cooperation, including infrastructure connectivity, was discussed.
“Government has consistently protested to parties concerned over the inclusion of the so-called ‘China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which passes through parts of the Indian Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir under illegal occupation of Pakistan, as a flagship project of ‘OBOR/BRI’ and asked them to cease these activities,” he said.
“Any proposed participation of third countries or expansion of the so-called CPEC projects to third countries is unacceptable. Government has consistently conveyed this position to relevant parties,” he added.
CPEC is a central part of the Belt and Road Initiative, under which Beijing has pledged over $60 billion for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, much of it in the form of loans.
At the Beijing meeting in May, foreign ministers from China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan expressed their intent to deepen trilateral cooperation, including economic integration and connectivity. China has voiced interest in extending CPEC into Afghanistan as part of broader reconstruction and development efforts in the war-torn country.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) has announced that Mahdi Ansary, a reporter for the Afghan News Agency (AFKA), has been released after serving one and a half years in Bagram prison.
In a statement welcoming his release, AFJC emphasized that the fundamental rights of this journalist—who had been tried and imprisoned on charges of cooperating with exiled and foreign media—were “seriously” violated.
Ansari was arrested on October 5, 2023, after returning from his workplace in Kabul.
He was sentenced on January 1, 2024 by the Kabul Primary Court to one and a half years in prison on charges of “propaganda against the Islamic Emirate.”
Farid Dehqan, spokesperson for the Khas Kunar police command, said that rocket attacks by the Pakistani military regime are still ongoing in the province.
These attacks come despite earlier announcements by the Pakistani military of a temporary ceasefire for Eid.
Afghanistan’s Chief of Armed Forces, Fasihuddin Fitrat, said in his Eid message that Pakistan’s military regime has violated the ceasefire along the Durand line.
According to the Eid message released by the Ministry of Defense, several civilians were killed in attacks carried out by Pakistani forces in border areas.
Fitrat added that the continuation of Pakistan’s attacks despite the ceasefire “demonstrates a lack of commitment and deception” on the part of the country.
He stressed that the Islamic Emirate has refrained from retaliatory action in order to prevent further deterioration of the situation and has remained committed to the ceasefire.
However, he warned that if such attacks are repeated, “the ceasefire will become meaningless,” and the Islamic Emirate will deliver a “decisive response” to Pakistan’s actions.
It is worth noting that the Islamic Emirate and Pakistan reached a temporary ceasefire on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr through mediation by Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.
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