The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which runs through Pakistan and remains a key part of China’s global connectivity project, has seen plenty of regional resistance so far. Confrontation and warmongering can fizzle out on its own when economic connectivity takes central place where individual state actors have much to lose by pursuing conflict and unilateral gains. India and the United States cannot hope to control Afghanistan and manage the crisis when they are bent upon playing zero-sum games. Afghanistan, Iran and the Central Asian region have shown willingness and interest in joining emerging regional economic blocks and connectivity routes. In this era of economic inter-dependence, the United States cannot contain China’s ambitions to rise as the next economic success story.

Source: Pakistan Today January 01, 2018 04:25 UTC