Russia Rejects Reports of Involvement in China Pakistan Economic Corridor
Parikshit Luthra | CNN-News18 ParikshitL
First published: December 19, 2016, 8:16 PM IST | Updated: 36 mins ago
Hours after Russia’s envoy to Islamabad Alexey Y Dedov was quoted by Radio Pakistan as saying that “Russia strongly supports the China Pakistan Economic Corridor” the
Russian Embassy in Islamabad has urged the media not to make its own conclusions and treat the report carefully.
Speaking to CNN-News18, the embassy’s press attaché
Vyacheslav Sentyurin said,
“There is no question of joining or investing in the CPEC corridor. We are not going to be a part of it, but we have our own projects which we could connect to it. These ideas are not new and the media has made its own conclusions. We don’t hide such things from India”.
Sentyurin said the press should refer to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s recent statement which said, “
Pakistani media reports about secret negotiations between Russia and Pakistan on the implementation of projects as part of CPEC are not true to facts and that Moscow is not discussing the possibility of joining this project with Islamabad”.
While reports quoted the Russian Envoy as saying that Russia was thinking about merging the Eurasian Economic Corridor with CPEC, the embassy clarified that “
in the interview with the ambassador it was the merging of the EAEU with Chinese project of Silk Road Belt that was under discussion. Recognising the importance of CPEC for Pakistan’s economy and regional connectivity, the ambassador made it clear that Russia doesn’t participate in it being engaged in realisation of its own large-scale bilateral project with Pakistan – that of “North-South” gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore”. …………………………………..
The Indian foreign ministry has refused to comment on Ambassador Dedov’s statements but, sources say government officials are closely following Moscow’s statements on Pakistan.