On December 4, 2025, the China Pakistan Study Centre at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad hosted the fifth working session of the Islamabad Conclave, bringing regional experts together to advance discussion on Regional Connectivity. The session, titled Regional Connectivity in South Asia: Multilateral Pathways for Collective Growth, emphasized practical steps to deepen economic ties across South and Central Asia.<\/p>\n
Former minister Khurram Dastgir Khan delivered the keynote and outlined Pakistan’s commitment to an inclusive, rules-based approach to connectivity rooted in geo-economic cooperation. He underscored that Regional Connectivity remains a shared aspiration across South Asia but is underdeveloped, noting Pakistan’s readiness to leverage growing engagement with Central Asian Republics to expand trade and transport links.<\/p>\n
Khurram Dastgir pointed to persistent regional frictions, particularly from India and Afghanistan, as obstacles to meaningful integration and called for credible leadership and responsible policies to foster harmony. He praised China’s role in promoting win-win cooperation and highlighted CPEC as a transformative model that can be used to scale sub-regional connectivity and strengthen Pakistan’s long-term geo-economic posture.<\/p>\n
Dr Talat Shabbir, director of CPSC and session moderator, stressed the need for structured regional cooperation amid global fragmentation and said Pakistan’s strategic geo-economic location positions it to be a catalyst for shared prosperity. Ambassador Masood Khalid argued that BRI and CPEC should be harnessed alongside regional platforms such as CAREC and ECO to build inclusive frameworks that address development gaps and rebuild trust through economic integration.<\/p>\n
Prof Dr Zhang Jiadong reflected on China’s global development, security, and civilization initiatives and their implications for South Asian stability. He recommended strengthened sub-regional collaboration on climate, digital integration, and inclusive narratives to unlock the region’s potential, reinforcing the central role of Regional Connectivity in long-term prosperity.<\/p>\n
Dr Aminath Sudha of Maldives National University highlighted the value of robust multilateralism and inclusive institutions to accelerate growth, noting that South Asia stands to gain from connectivity frameworks based on complementarity rather than competition. Mr Syed Hassan Akbar advocated that Pakistan can reinvigorate its geo-economics agenda by capitalising on strategic geography, maritime assets, and emerging partnerships to drive technology, investment, and knowledge-driven links across South Asia, Central Asia, and ASEAN.<\/p>\n
The session concluded with mementos presented by Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, chairman of the ISSI Board of Governors, and reaffirmed a consensus that practical multilateral pathways, anchored by initiatives like CPEC, are central to advancing Regional Connectivity and shared economic growth across the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Explore how Regional Connectivity advances via CPEC and multilateral cooperation to boost Pakistan’s geo-economic ties and sub-regional growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}