In a sudden and unexpected volte-face, Pakistan has announced that its ally and benefactor, Saudi Arabia, won't be joining China's "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) as its third strategic partner. The announcement also means Saudi Arabia won't become a partner in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is BRI's cornerstone project.
The shock announcement made today offered no credible explanation for the out-of-the-blue change of heart by Pakistan and China. Astonishingly, the announcement was made at a time when a Saudi delegation is in Pakistan for initial assessments about Pakistan's offer that the Kingdom join the BRI.
It came only a few days after the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan said Riyadh will be BRI's third strategic partner. Pundits noted with some irony that the dismissal of Saudi Arabia comes just three weeks after Khan visited the Kingdom on his first official visit abroad as Prime Minister, and might have something to do with it.
During his two day visit commencing Sept. 18, Khan was believed to have asked the Saudis for financial aid to cope with Pakistan's fast rising fiscal deficit, which jumped to 6.6 percent of gross domestic product in the financial year ending June 30. Saudi money won't apparently be forthcoming since Islamabad has made no mention of any good news on this front.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Saudi Arabia will become the third CPEC strategic partner soon after Khan returned from his state visit to the kingdom.
Pakistani Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar said Saudi Arabia's proposed investments in Pakistan (and not in BRI or CPEC) will fall under a separate bilateral arrangement. He said Saudi Arabia will become a "collateral strategic partner" in CPEC.
Bakhtiar explained that a third country such as Saudi Arabia can participate in CPEC by taking part in the business and investment ventures arising out of the project. He said CPEC will remain a purely bilateral venture between Pakistan and China.
Saudi Arabia won't join as a trilateral partner in CPEC but will instead contribute to broadening the base of CPEC and helping expedite the project, said Bakhtiar. Bakhtiar also said a decision hasn't been made by Pakistan and China to bring a third country like Saudi Arabia under the CPEC framework. Saudi Arabia also can't become part of the Joint Working Groups or Joint Coordination Committee on the CPEC.
Bakhtiar said third countries could join what he called "offshoots" of the CPEC. These trilateral arrangement for infrastructure development could be China-Pakistan-Saudi Arabia; China-Pakistan-Germany or China-Pakistan-Japan.
Bakhtiar said total CPEC investments currently stand at $50 billion, of which about $6 billion are government-to-government loans. About $29 billion worth of CPEC projects are currently in progress.
