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ISLAMABAD � China is investing billions of dollars in extensive roads, railways, special industrial zones and energy infrastructure in Pakistan. The massive collaboration dubbed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, is generating interest among Pakistani students and professionals to learn Mandarin.

Li Xue Mei teaches compulsory Mandarin lessons to around 300 students ranging from grade five to middle school. She is one of the Chinese instructors at the private Roots millennium schools, where more than 7,000 children are learning the language.

They are good and they are very excited to learn Chinese, she said.

She adds that writing Chinese language characters is challenging for her students, but they quickly master it. The instructor underscores the urgency of learning Mandarin.

I think they need to learn more Chinese to learn Chinese culture and they can communicate more and they can cooperate better with Chinese people and they can work better, she said.

China's investment of around $60 billion under CPEC collaboration is expected to bring around 20,000 Chinese to Pakistan.

A large number of them have already moved to the country, mostly running private businesses.

Public and private institutions are establishing links with Chinese counterparts to promote exchanges in higher education and provide research opportunities on both sides of the border.

Beijing regards CPEC as a pilot flagship project of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is a massive trade and connectivity venture aimed at linking China to the rest of Asia, Africa and Europe through both land and maritime routes.

While both countries have traditionally enjoyed close political and defense ties, officials hope the corridor will further cement relations and bring economic prosperity to Pakistan.

History bears testimony to the fact that this great friendship has stood the test of time. But in the past four years this relationship has crossed new thresholds and culminated in the establishment of CPEC, said Pakistani Foreign Policy Advisor Sartaj Aziz.

The nearly 3,000-kilometer long corridor China is building in Pakistan will allow its trade convoys to travel along the Karakoram Highway, snaking past snow-capped ranges, down to the deep-water Pakistani port of Gwadar. The freight will then be placed on ships bound for markets in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Source: Voice of America

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UNITED NATIONS � The president of the U.N. conference drafting what could be the first treaty to ban nuclear weapons expressed confidence Thursday that with the necessary political will more than 130 countries supporting the initiative can reach agreement by the July 7 target.

Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told the opening of negotiations on a draft treaty circulated May 22 that delegates were representing their countries, but they were also united together in historic commitment to finalizing a treaty.

None of nuclear powers supports treaty

Last December, U.N. member states overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for negotiations on a treaty that would outlaw nuclear weapons, despite strong opposition from nuclear-armed nations and their allies.

Not one of the nine countries believed to possess nuclear weapons � the U.S., Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel � is supporting a treaty.

Instead of adopting a ban, the United States and other nuclear powers want to strengthen and reaffirm the nearly half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The NPT, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation efforts, aims to prevent the spread of atomic arms beyond the five original weapons powers: the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China.

It requires non-nuclear signatory nations not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for a commitment by the five nuclear powers to move toward nuclear disarmament, and to guarantee non-nuclear states access to peaceful nuclear technology to produce nuclear power.

Haley: 'Be realistic'

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said March 27 when talks began on the nuclear weapons ban treaty that there is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons, but we have to be realistic.

She asked if anyone thought North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons, stressing that North Koreans would be cheering a nuclear ban treaty and Americans and others would be at risk.

But U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told Thursday's opening that negotiations to achieve the clear, legal prohibition of nuclear weapons ... are truly historic.

Nuclear disarmament has been the longest sought objective of the United Nations dating back to the very first resolution adopted by the General Assembly in January 1946, she said.

We have seen some impressive gains since that time, Nakamitsu said. Yet, it has been more than 20 years now since the United Nations disarmament bodies have produced a multilateral legally binding instrument on nuclear weapons.

Need for progress

She said the need for progress is clear and urgent, pointing to the deteriorating international security landscape, new awareness of the devastating consequences of using nuclear weapons, and the modernization of nuclear arsenals by some countries.

The draft treaty, among other things, says states would pledge never to develop, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess, transfer, receive, stockpile, test or use nuclear weapons or explosives. They would also endeavor to prohibit any stationing, installation or deployment of any nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices on their territories or in their jurisdictions.

We are confident the treaty can be completed and adopted by July 7, the final day of negotiations, said David Solimini, spokesman for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Once the treaty is adopted countries are free to join.

Source: Voice of America

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, June 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) chaired by HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, acquired a 7% stake in Careem through a Secondary Share purchase as well as participating in the latest Primary Round E-1 Capital Raise amounting to a total transaction value of $62M. The transaction […]

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