The Foreign Office Saturday reacted sharply to US Defence Secretary James Mattis statement on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) being passes through "disputed territory", saying that it is development and connectivity project for the betterment of the people in the region and beyond.
"The CPEC is a development and connectivity project for the betterment of the people in the region and beyond. The international community should focus on human rights violations and heinous crimes committed by Indian occupation forces in Indian occupied Kashmir," said Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria in response to a media query regarding General James Mattis statement on CPEC.
He said as for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, he said that efforts need to be made to implement UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir that call for a UN supervised plebiscite to enable Kashmiris to exercise their right to self-determination.
"The One Belt, One Road also goes through disputed territory, and I think that in itself shows the vulnerability of trying to establish that sort of a dictate," US Defence Secretary Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He further said the US opposed the One Belt, One Road policy in principle because in a globalised world, there were many belts and many roads, and no one nation should put itself into a position of dictating One Belt, One Road. "And it opposed the one going through Pakistan also because it passed through a disputed territory," he maintained.