Circle the area on this map
C. Pakistan is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. China announced its Belt and Road program in 2013 to boost economic growth and extend its influence throughout the developing world. But, it has faced criticism over unfinished projects and poor nations being saddled with crippling debt under the program.
A. Pakistan has a 650-mile coastline along the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean. One protester said Pakistani officials claimed the Chinese project would make the port city of Gwadar the Singapore of Pakistan. “But today, we don’t have water, electricity and Chinese trawlers are illegally fishing at our coast.”
D. Pakistan hosted the men who later founded all of these rival militant groups during the 1980s Soviet-Afghan War, when insurgent Islamist groups known collectively as the mujahideen fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Afghanistan government it backed. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States all supported the guerrillas in that conflict.
C. India and Pakistan have been involved in a number of wars, conflicts, and military standoffs ever since the two states were established in 1947 at the end of British colonial rule. One of the reasons Pakistan’s spy agency helped create the Taliban, which just retook control of Afghanistan, was to block any Indian influence over that nation.