For The Second Time In Less Than 30 Days, Russia Rejects Reports Of Involvement In China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Soon after Russia’s envoy to Pakistan Alexey Y Dedov was quoted by Pakistani media outlets as saying that “Russia strongly supports the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” the Russian Embassy in Islamabad refuted the reports.

The Russian embassy rejected claims made by a state-owned media outlet Radio Pakistan in a detailed Facebook post on Monday. In its report on 16 December, Radio Pakistan had claimed that the two countries are “holding discussions to merge the two projects.”

While reports quoted the Russian envoy as saying that Moscow 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.”

This came as an embarrassment for Pakistan and the jingoistic media outlets in the country that have declared war on India from their studios in Lahore and Karachi.

This refutation comes just 20 days after a statement from Russian Foreign Minister that rejected a similar report saying “Moscow is not discussing the possibility of joining this project with Islamabad.” Back then, media outlets in Pakistan had claimed that the two countries were holding “secret negotiations” on Moscow’s participation in the economic corridor.

On 4 December, Russian ambassador to Pakistan had said that Moscow will not strengthen ties with Islamabad “at the cost of our special and privileged strategic partnership with India,” and said that he has already rebuffed the reports of Russian participation in CPEC and use of Gwadar port.