China's expert from the Diplomatic Academy Ren Yuanzhe believes that this time the corridor dialogue was held in conjunction with the Chinese initiative of building the Silk Road:
"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is the main component of the One Belt, One Road initiative. Its construction plays an important role in the Sino-Pakistani relations and throughout South Asia, regarding peace, stability and the economic development of the region."
"In addition, there is a traditional profound friendship between China and Pakistan, which lifted their bilateral ties to all-weather strategic cooperation and partnership; that is why the parties are paying great attention to the construction of CPEC," Yuanzhe told Sputnik.
The expert expressed his hope that China will use the project to stimulate development of cooperation in the South Asian region:
"I suppose that the construction of this corridor is not conducted for the repression of other countries or for the isolated increasing of China's influence. I hope that for China, this project will be a method to stimulate further expansion and development of cooperation in South Asia, and between China and Pakistan in particular."
"According to the available information, Chinese Navy warships enter the territory of the Gwadar Port without a formal declaration. It can be assumed that Gwadar is already partially used as a Chinese naval base. It is still difficult to say whether it will be officially documented or not."
Nevertheless, China's presence in the port actually refers to its presence not only in South Asia but in the Middle East as well, the expert said.
"This indicates that China goes beyond its national borders not only as the world's leading economy, but also as a new center of power, which begins to create military bases in the necessary regions of the world," Yevseyev told Sputnik, noting that the base in Djibouti is being built in close proximity to the one that belongs to the US, allowing China to control its activity and conduct technical reconnaissance.
After Pakistan, Syria may become the next country where it will be possible to use the Chinese special forces to protect China's commercial interests. President Bashar al-Assad recently expressed his personal interest in China's participation in the post-war arrangement of Syria. And China in return showed its readiness to dispatch its own military experts to train the Syrian Army. It was a sign of the military's interest in participating in the fate of Syria after the war.