26 April 2015

10 lodestars from Xi's Pakistan visit

April 23, 2015

'The Modi government's lurch toward America has not brought it any dividends so far. The Western world is simply not in a position to make big investments in India... India needs to take a leap of faith vis-a-vis China,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

Looking at it from any angle, Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan last week has been an extraordinary event. To be sure, Pakistan experienced the 'Midas touch.'

Almost overnight, there is buzz that Pakistan is an overlooked reform story without reform valuations. And this is according to the prestigious London-based Renaissance Capital. But Xi's visit was not exclusively business-driven, either, since whatever China touches today -- even a new bank -- also becomes 'political.' Beijing can’t help it.

And, of course, anything China does with Pakistan also affects India and a wide arc of countries in the South and Central Asian regions (where the United States also happens to be an embedded superpower lately). In sum, Xi's Pakistan visit becomes a moveable feast for strategic analysts. I spotted ten lodestars. They are:

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