Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday said that the multi-billion dollar CPEC was an economic project open to all nations in the region and it "must not be politicised", taking pot-shots at India for boycotting China's high-profile Belt and Road Forum.
India skipped the meeting due to its concerns over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which goes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
However, few Indian scholars attended the opening session of the two-day "Belt and Road" conference here that brought together leaders from 29 nations.
"Let me make it very clear that CPEC is an economic undertaking open to all countries in the region. It has no geographical boundaries. It must not be politicised," Sharif said in his speech at the inaugural session of the forum, defending the project over which India has raised objections.
Stating that CPEC has emerged as core and flagship project of China's One Belt and One Road (OBOR), he said, "OBOR signifies that geo-economics must take precedence over geo-politics and that the centre of gravity should shift from conflict to cooperation. We see it as a path for overcoming terrorism and extremism."
In implementing CPEC "we are not striving to merely leverage geography for economic prosperity, we are also trying to build peaceful, connected and caring neighbourhood," he added.