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Pakistan seeks deeper China ties with new push on finance, ports and CPEC
BROADER STRATEGY OF ECONOMIC, REGIONAL INTEGRATION
Pakistan is seeking to broaden its partnership with China by advancing cooperation in finance, port development and the next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), top Pakistani officials said on Monday, signaling Islamabad’s renewed focus on strengthening economic integration with its longtime strategic ally….
In his meeting with the [Industrial and Commercial Bank of China] chairman, [Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb] …. emphasized that partnerships with Chinese financial institutions are not only vital for meeting immediate financing needs but are also integral to Pakistan’s broader strategy of diversification, financial innovation, and regional integration.
CHINA-PAKISTAN-BANGLADESH-AFGHANISTAN:
A POST-SAARC REGIONAL ORDER?
India: Regionally isolated
The International News, July 28, 2025 – ….This does not intend to replace already existing platforms like Saarc, rather establish a post-Saarc regional order focused on infrastructure development for regional connectivity. The China-Pakistan-Bangladesh and China-Pakistan-Afghanistan trilaterals signal towards establishing a new regional cooperation mechanism. This can evolve into more institutionalised platforms for regional cooperation and connectivity.
These developments suggest that India’s attempts at shaping the regional framework ‘on its own terms’ have been largely unsuccessful. India, now by refusing to shed its desire for supremacy and due to a lack of cooperation, risks facing regional isolation as well as strategic challenges. This not only accentuates India’s two-front dilemma along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China but also opens up three additional fronts amid the new regional alignments.
Are China, Pakistan, Bangladesh quietly planting region’s new framework?
South China Morning Post, July 18, 2025 – Kunming trilateral meeting comes as India-Pakistan rivalry paralyses SAARC and Pakistan is frozen out of BIMSTEC, leaving a regional void.
New bloc to replace SAARC? Pakistan, China in ‘advanced’ talks to develop new organisation for regional integration
The Week (India), June 30, 2025 – Allies Pakistan and China are currently in talks to establish a new regional bloc that could replace the defunct South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), officials said on Monday….
A recent trilateral meeting on June 19 between Pakistan, China and Bangladesh at Kunming, China, was said to have the new organisation proposal on its agenda.
The SAARC consisted of India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The bloc, which had been suspended for a long time due to India-Pakistan tensions, has not seen any summits since 2014.
Pak, China eye new bloc replacing SAARC
Express Tribune (Pakistan), June 30, 2025 – If the proposal is materialised, SAARC, which was once dubbed European Union (EU) of South Asia, would be dead as ever.