Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday asserted that America's stance on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will have "no impact" on the multi-billion dollar project, days after the US warned Islamabad against the project and said it will take a toll on the country's economy.
The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China's resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan's strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.
The project was launched in 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Islamabad and it now envisages investment of over USD 60 billion in different projects of development in Pakistan.
In-charge of South Asia affairs at the US State Department, Alice Wells, last week said that the CPEC would take a toll on Pakistan's economy in future.
Talking to the media in his home town of Multan, Qureshi rejected the US' "concerns", saying that the vital project would continue.
"Pakistan does not agree with that view. We have rejected that view," Qureshi said. "We do not think that the burden of the CPEC will increase our debt burden."
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