Pakistan’s Strategic Position in China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Implications for South Asian Geopolitics and Regional Power Dynamics

Abstract

This bears close examination of the strategic role that Pakistan plays in the context of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), especially through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its implications on South Asian geopolitics. The thesis examines how infrastructure development, foreign direct investment and energy generation, alongside other economic, political and security outcomes, emerge in Pakistan as result of Pakistan’s involvement in BRI. It highlights the advantages of increased regional trade connectivity and industrial growth as well as the perils of increasing debt and security problems, primarily in seismically vulnerable areas like Balochistan. Moreover, the study discusses regional power shift including economic leverage of Pakistan and Pakistan’s changing relations with India, Afghanistan and China. The BRI is concluded to bestow Pakistan with beneficial opportunities, though it demands the management of financial dependence and associated security risks.

Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Geopolitics, South Asia, Infrastructure Development, Foreign Direct Investment, Regional Power Dynamics