DHAKA -Here are two potential indicators of Chinese interest in moving ahead with a proposed USD 400 billion economic and military cooperation agreement with Iran: a Chinese push for Iranian membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and renewed interest in a China-Pakistan-Iran-Turkey energy pipeline. China has moved on neither.
The pipeline was first touted in 2015 in anticipation of the lifting and/or easing of US and United Nations sanctions against Iran as a result of an international agreement that curbed the Islamic republic's nuclear programme. The scholars went on to note that"the energy corridor is in line with the energy strategic objectives of China, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey," but cautioned that regional conflicts, including in Pakistan's Balochistan province as well as in south-eastern Turkey and in Iran, posed threats.
Pakistan initially signalled last December its interest in aligning itself with Turkey, Qatar and Iran by agreeing to participate in an Islamic summit in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur convened to challenge Saudi leadership of the Muslim world.