China for $58 billion rail link with Pakistan to reduce reliance on West

the $57.7 billion plan to construct a 1,860-mile rail system is worth the investment and has the potential to reshape not only trade but geopolitics

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April 29, 2023 11:17 am

A train equipped with coaches imported from China arrives at a railway station in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, Jan. 27, 2023. (Ahmad Kamal/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Islamabad: To move further away from Western trade dependence, China has proposed its most expensive Belt and Road Initiative to date with a $58 billion railway system connecting Pakistan to western China.

According to analysts from the state-owned China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Co Ltd, the $57.7 billion plan to construct a 1,860-mile rail system is worth the investment and has the potential to reshape not only trade but geopolitics, reports Yahoo.

The rail system will be designed to connect Pakistan’s port of Gwadar to the Chinese city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Foreign ministers from China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan meet in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on April 13, 2023. (Bai Xueqi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“The government and financial institutions should provide strong support, increase coordination and collaboration among relevant domestic departments, strive for the injection of support funds and provide strong policy support and guarantees for the construction of this project,” the Chinese team of analysts said in a report published earlier this month in the Chinese journal, Railway Transport and Economy.

The new transport project, connecting China to Pakistan, is set to be China’s biggest railway project yet. However, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail line in Indonesia – Asia’s first high-speed rail system – which is slated to open in June, is still the first major international rail system.

China is also working on a rail system which will connect the country to the world’s top manufacturer with the Arabian Sea, opening it up to more direct trade routes.

It is also expected to encourage additional train systems that could connect China to Turkey and Iran – significantly opening up direct access to the regions, reported the South China Morning Post.

Additionally, China hopes to connect with Turkey and Iran – significantly opening up direct access to the regions, reported the South China Morning Post.

Beijing’s broader Belt and Road Initiative is gradually solidifying China as a world superpower and encourage global domination in the trade sector.

China’s initiative show a future which is looking to shift focus away from historical trade routes dominated by Western nations. The country’s goal is to improve economic goals and encourage a “multipolar world” to diminish Western power – a move that top autocratic nations like Russia and Iran have also been eager to encourage as geopolitical tensions with the West continue to escalate.