{"id":14112,"date":"2021-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/26-02-2021\/pm-of-pakistan-visits-sri-lanka\/"},"modified":"2021-02-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T00:00:00","slug":"pm-of-pakistan-visits-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/26-02-2021\/pm-of-pakistan-visits-sri-lanka","title":{"rendered":"PM of Pakistan Visits Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, the Prime Minister of Pakistan has arrived in Sri Lanka to boost ties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The PM participated in a joint <strong>Trade and Investment Conference&#8217;<\/strong> aimed at promoting t<strong>rade and investment between the two countries. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>He announced a new USD 50 million defence credit line facility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The two sides stressed the need for a <strong>stronger partnership for supporting<\/strong> and <strong>coordinating with each other<\/strong> in dealing with matters related to s<strong>ecurity, terrorism, organized crime and drug and narcotic trafficking <\/strong>as well as intelligence-sharing.<\/li>\n<li>The Pakistan delegation invited Colombo to <strong>use China Pakistan Economic Corridor\u00a0 (CPEC) for trade with China and Central Asia.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>CPEC would help enhance Sri Lanka\u2019s connectivity <\/strong>\u201cright up to Central Asia\u201d, while trade ties <strong>would bring Pakistan and Sri Lanka \u201ccloser together\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Implications on India<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ties between Pakistan and Sri Lanka through CPEC\u00a0 would hamper <strong>India\u2019s strategic interests in the South Asian region and India Ocean. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It will serve Beijing&#8217;s strategic ambition to <strong>encircle India as China <\/strong>has already constructed the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka provided China critical strategic location in the <strong>Indian Ocean.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>An extensive Chinese and Pakistan presence will undermine India\u2019s influence in the Indian Ocean Region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Steps Taken by India<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Quad Grouping<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an informal strategic dialogue between<strong> India, the USA, Japan and Australia <\/strong>with a shared objective to ensure and support a \u201cfree, open and prosperous\u201d Indo-Pacific region.<\/li>\n<li>The idea of Quad was first presented by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007. But the idea at that time couldn\u2019t move ahead with Australia pulling out of it, apparently due to <strong>Chinese pressure.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In November 2017, <strong>India, the US, Australia and Japan<\/strong> gave shape to the long-pending \u201c<strong>Quad\u201d Coalition t<\/strong>o develop a <strong>new strategy to keep the critical sea routes<\/strong> in the <strong>Indo-Pacific free of any influence especially<\/strong> due to the rising dominance of <strong>China in the region.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Project Mausam<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It was announced by the NDA government in 2014. The project exists at two levels.\n<ul>\n<li>At the <strong>macro level, it aims to re-connect <\/strong>and <strong>re-establish <\/strong>c<strong>ommunications between countries<\/strong> of the Indian Ocean world, which would lead to an<strong> enhanced understanding <\/strong>of cultural values and concerns.<\/li>\n<li>At the micro-level, the focus is on <strong>understanding national cultures in their regional maritime milieu.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India can work with nations like Japan in developing regional connectivity. Japan has already outlined a <strong>Belt and Road initiative of its own, called the Partnership for Quality I<\/strong>nfrastructure under which Japan has put up nearly $150 billion to support infrastructure projects all across the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia.<\/li>\n<li>India should also improve our access to Europe by expediting projects like INSTC and others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:735px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align:top; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>China Pakistan Economic Corridor<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>3,218-km route consisting of highways, railways and pipelines<\/strong> that will connect Gwadar port to Xinjiang in China.<\/li>\n<li>It is crucial for China\u2019s \u2018One Belt, One Road\u2019 initiative that aims to connect China to Europe and Asia.<\/li>\n<li>The Gwadar port is the showpiece of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which Beijing sees as a <strong>crucial link that will help it in its drive to become a world power.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>India has boycotted the OBOR and the CPEC organised by China citing sovereignty and security issues. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/175350667961363300_image.png\" style=\"height:264px; width:411px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/pakistan-pm-imran-khan-to-arrive-in-sri-lanka-on-february-23\/article33912735.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, the Prime Minister of Pakistan has arrived in Sri Lanka to boost ties. Key Highlights The PM participated in a joint Trade and Investment Conference&#8217; aimed at promoting trade and investment between the two countries. He announced a new USD 50 million defence credit line facility. The two sides stressed the need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1607332current-affairs (1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}