00:00And for more, I spoke with Fawad Chowdhury, a former minister of information in Pakistan.
00:05The primary focus of this discussion remains Iran. Pakistan has obviously the bilateral,
00:13you know, economic talks as well or the interests with China. But Pakistan and China's primary
00:20relationship has been a very longstanding strategic relationship. So I think the strategic
00:28situation of this region, especially vis-a-vis Iran, would have remained the top priority
00:35in the talks. But also the Pakistan-China, especially the CPEC, you know, the corridor
00:41relationship, that is very important for Pakistan as well. So Pakistan would have spoken about that
00:47as well. And also yesterday we have seen a prime minister spoke about Chinese investments in
00:52Pakistan, which is a longstanding relationship Pakistan has established with China.
00:58But I think as far as the genesis of this visit is concerned, it remains Iran-USA war.
01:06Well, we'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. Let's focus for now just on the
01:10investments in the economic partnership. Looking specifically at CPEC that you mentioned,
01:15the China-Pakistan economic corridor. How successful is that now that it's begun a new
01:21phase moving from infrastructure building towards more industrialization, jobs and exports?
01:28You see, CPEC had many phases. The first phase was to connect China through road corridors with the
01:36important seaports. So China built Gawadar. So China obviously helped to, you know, connect this
01:45motorway up to Sakhar now, where there's just a small phase that remains to be completed between
01:51and Karachi and Sakhar. But rest of the motorways are now complete. The other important aspect was that
01:58now the China built these SEGs, special economic zones around those roads. And in the previous
02:06government, when we were in the government, we added agriculture into CPEC also. So now the infrastructure is
02:13ready. And we have to move forward to the more substantive part of the CPEC. And that means that
02:20on this infrastructure that China, that has been built with the help of China, we need industrialization
02:27of Pakistan. As you know that, you know, the China in China also, China has been a factory of the
02:33world
02:33for a very long time now. And now they need to expand this factory and need to bring, you know,
02:40other
02:40countries into the fold. And China is exactly doing that. And countries like Pakistan will
02:45hugely benefit from this Chinese policy. Now, you were telling us about the role that Pakistan is
02:51playing in mediating between the United States and Iran, Pakistan sharing a border, of course,
02:57with Iran, as well as with China. And the military chief of Pakistan has just left Tehran after talks
03:05there. And how hopeful are you that a deal can be done? I think practically the deal has already been
03:12done. There has been a ceasefire that is now, I mean, fairly respected by both Iran and USA.
03:21Now, it's more of an integrity thing. I think the issue is that Iran wants this nuclear deal to be
03:27discussed separately. This I mean, they want to play with their constituency. And President Trump wants this
03:33deal to be, you know, negotiated now, they want, he wants to play with his constituency. So it's now,
03:40I think it's more of a politics, internal politics of Iran and USA that is now hindering the deal.
03:47Otherwise, the practically, if you see, they have already reached on a deal. And I think Pakistan,
03:54along with Saudi Arabia and China, have played a very important role in concluding this primary,
04:00you know, points of the deal. And I hope that, I hope that now we are in the final,
04:06on the final stages and it will be done sooner than later.
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