Analyzing Pakistan’s Geoeconomic and Geopolitical Importance to BRI

The "Belt and Road" initiative (BRI) has built a bridge linking China with countries along the belt and road. BRI related issues are no longer an abstract debate, as many projects have been implementing or even have been completed in recent years. Pakistan, as a traditional friendly neighbor of China, has actively participated in the initiative, providing new opportunities for bilateral economic cooperation. With its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan plays a vital pivot. It becomes a lynchpin of BRI as CPEC connects important sea routes to western China, which is surrounded by land. This article, therefore, is an analysis of Pakistan's role in the Chinese initiative, including geo-economic and geopolitical importance of Pakistan for China, and the importance of Gwadar port for China and projects of CPEC in Pakistan. Unlike current debates which usually conceptualized BRI in a hegemonic, mercantilism, or economic starcrafts context, this study finds the importance of geography and economic security concepts for both Pakistan and China as influential factors along with other factors.