In this economically driven era, countries around the world are striving hard to utilize their geography and resources to advance development and prosperity. Pakistan realized the importance of its geographical location and has taken a paradigm shift in its foreign policy: from geostrategic to geoeconomic. Abundant opportunities are there in the region for the country to materialize this dream into a reality and make the country out of this mess. However, at the same time, this shift is faced with so many challenges that need to be curtailed on a priority level.

Before delving deeper into it, it is of utmost importance to have a glance at the historical approach of Pakistan. Pakistan’s foreign policy has traditionally been run by regional developments, especially the varying interests of global powers in the South Asian region, coupled with the changing political and security dynamics of neighboring countries like India and Afghanistan. From the outset of the country, the policymakers of the country focused on geo-strategic and geopolitical dimensions of foreign policy, thereby undermining its geoeconomic aspects. Although the country strived hard for many years in this regard, its National Security Policy (NSP) is officially a paradigm shift in the state’s foreign policy with centrality on geo-economics.

The new national narrative of geo-economics, if implemented in true letter and spirit, would change not only the fate of this crisis-ridden country but will also make this entire region very prosperous.

The first and foremost of such opportunities are offered by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). initiated in 2013, the BRI is preparing to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land, maritime, and digital networks. Partly because of its strategic location and partly because of its outstanding relations with China, Pakistan has a very important role to play in BRI implementation. CPEC is a........

© The Spine Times