Arriving in Lahore tomorrow after deepening the strategic partnership with Pakistan, Chinese President Hu Jintao will bring Beijing’s economic juggernaut right up close to India’s heartland.

As he dines on juicy kebabs at Hazoori Bagh next to the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, just a few miles from Amritsar, New Delhi will find that the heat from the rise of China will soon ignite economic growth in the Panjab.

While the Indian security establishment will pore over the many agreements, including new ones on defence cooperation signed by Hu in Islamabad today, the most consequential outcome is the bilateral free trade agreement, China’s first such in the subcontinent.

Tomorrow, Hu will join Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf in inaugurating a special economic zone near Lahore that has been set up for Chinese businessmen. China and Pakistan are also developing a special textile zone in Faisalabad.

Over the last few years, there had been much talk about Punjab-Panjab cooperation across the Indo-Pak dividing line. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his visit to Amritsar earlier this year, put across a vision for greater cooperation between the two provinces and their joint outreach to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Given the resistance to creative ideas in the Indian national security establishment and the enduring burden of Indo-Pak relations that trumps the prospects for economic integration between the two Punjabs, it’s Hu’s turn to proclaim “Chini-Panjabi bhai, bhai.”

Then the FTA is expected to boost Sino-Pak trade nearly four times to $15 billion in the next five years. The FTA, however, is only one part of Hu’s ambitious plan for economic integration between Western China and Pakistan. The SEZ projects in West Punjab will establish a framework for rapid expansion of Chinese investments in Pakistan. An agreement today to develop a joint investment company will see Beijing financing a broad range of infrastructure development in Pakistan.

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