Islamabad: China has been quietly holding talks with Baloch militants in Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province for over five years to protect its $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative, according to a media report.
The 3,000-km-long CPEC is aimed at connecting China and Pakistan with rail, road, pipelines and optical cable fiber network. It connects China's Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Gwadar port, providing access to China to the Arabian Sea. The project, when completed, would enable China to pump its oil supplies from the Middle East through pipelines to Xinjiang cutting considerable distance for Chinese ships to travel to China.
"China had been in direct contact with militants in the south-western province, where many of the scheme s most important projects are located," three officials were quoted as saying by the Financial Times.
For more than half a century, Beijing has maintained a policy of non-interference in the domestic politics of other countries. But that has been tested by its desire to protect the billions of dollars it is investing around the world under its Belt and Road Initiative to create a new Silk Road of trade routes in Europe, Asia and Africa.
"China's willingness to get involved in Pakistani politics has fuelled concerns in New Delhi, which is worried about China s growing political influence in neighbouring countries, including Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka," the report said.
As it seeks to boost the Chinese economy, China s plans for a new Silk Road has pitched China into some of the world s most complex conflict zones, the report said. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), over which India has conveyed its protests to China.