Purpose By combining geopolitical and economic factors and from a geoeconomic perspective, the importance of Gwadar to China and Pakistan is discussed in detail. By applying geoeconomic approach and based on the historical approach, geographical and geopolitical conditions and international development trends of Gwadar port, the authors develop the analytical framework to analyze the Gwadar port and studied its importance in the development of China and Pakistan, as well as the positive influence on the economic growth of both countries. Design/methodology/approach A geoeconomic study is done to run a more profound and more comprehensive analysis of China–Pakistan economic relationship, as geoeconomic includes interrelations of geographical, geopolitical and economic factors in international relations. Findings The results show that Gwadar Port's development could enhance the economic security of both China and Pakistan. With the opening of Gwadar Port, oil and energy in the Middle East will be imported directly to China through Pakistan's oil pipeline. This is not only oil but also goods from Central Asia, and even Europe and the USA will land from Gwadar Port and enter China through the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The development of Gwadar port under the CPEC program could also dramatically increase the capacity of Pakistan's maritime trade while reducing its dependence on the current largest port, Karachi, near the India border. Originality/value Geo-economics theory is used to run a more profound and more comprehensive analysis of China–Pakistan economic relationship as geoeconomic includes interrelations of geographical, location, geopolitical and economic factors in international relations. By combining geopolitical and economic factors and from a geoeconomic perspective, this study seeks to analyze the Gwadar port development and its implications for both China and Pakistan.

This paper accounts for the political determinant of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows for 31 Upper-Middle-income Countries (UMCs) over the period of 1990-2011. By measuring the types of regime along an autocracy-democracy spectrum, we empirically investigate how the quality of political institutions in host countries can impact the level of political risks perceived by foreign investors and Multinational Corporates (MNCs). The dynamic panel ''difference'' GMM estimator proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991) is developed to deal with autocorrelation problems and endogeneity of the variables in the models. The empirical findings indicate that democracy enhances FDI toward UMCs. Indeed, its positive effect on FDI inflows is remarkable compared to other economic control variables accounted for in this paper.

Developing countries take Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as leverage for economic growth and development as a result of FDI technology spillovers. However, the effect of FDI inflows on economic growth of host countries is conditional on the abilities of those countries in absorbing and accumulating external knowledge. The related literature paid particular attention to the role of the financial system and trade liberalization of recipients. Thus, this paper investigated empirically the intermediary roles of the financial system and trade liberalization as Absorptive Capacity (AC) factors on the FDI led growth nexus. This study provided data evidence from 33 UpperMiddle-income Countries (UMCs) over the period of 1990-2011 to contribute to the existing literature. This empirical study employed the dynamic panel "difference" GMM estimator proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991); since it prevents the biases inherent to economic growth models including auto-correlation, unobserved heterogeneity, and endogeneity between explanatory variables. The results indicated the development of the domestic financial system facilitated FDI technology spillovers in order to enhance the economic growth of UMCs. However, the empirical findings also showed a negative effect of trade openness on stimulating the FDI spillovers.

Even though China extracts oil more than any other country in the Asia-Pacific region, the country is still hugely dependent on imports, and this dependence increases with each passing year. In recent years, the need for import of oil in China had risen from 35% in 2000 to 70% in 2017. Today, the People’s Republic of China mainly buys crude oil in the Middle East and political change in the region directly influence on Chinese foreign policy. In this study, we examined four critical factors that influence china’s oil diplomacy in the Middle East. Accordingly, Arab spring events, OPEC, China foreign policies and strategies, and influence of the U.S. in the region have direct or indirect effects on china’s oil diplomacy. China’s historical reaction to these factors is remarkable and made its energy security strategies in the Middle east. This study shows that the events of the Arab Spring hurt China’s oil diplomacy with the middle East countries. The developments taking place in the Middle East from the beginning of the Arab Spring have led to an increase in world oil prices. For China, this meant higher import bills and a reduction in the trade surplus, as well as slower economic growth, as the contribution of net exports decreased. OPEC market controlling strategies let China thinks to other oil producers, and oil exports from the Middle East reduced in front of increasing imports from other regions. U.S. as hegemon of the area somehow made steady pressure on China alliance, especially after making sanctions on Iran due to its nuclear programs. During the trade war between the two countries, the influence of the U.S. on China oil diplomacy more appeared.

The 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI) proposal provides an opportunity to address the challenges of energy security. This paper aims to explore the relationship between China's energy policies and the BRI, especially in energy security, by highlighting the energy status in China and its top energy priorities. In this study, the analytical framework presented is based on the model of "four As." The results indicated that BRI can improve China's energy security in all four areas of availability, accessibility, affordability, and acceptability. By deepening energy cooperation with BRI countries, the import transportation channels of energy in China can be further diversified, its room for maneuver in the international energy market will increase, along with its voice in international energy negotiations and global energy governance. The initiative will enable member states to collaborate on energy supply and security issues broadly and strategically. In addition, it can improve energy development efficiency and speed up the circulation of investment funds. Further, BRI can increase energy technology exchanges and cooperation with major energy-consuming countries such as Japan and Singapore. Contrary to merely geopolitical analysis, China's BRI Energy Sustainable Project should be observed in a broader context in terms of sustainable development and economic objectives. Under the framework of the BRI strategy, the future development path of China's energy security strategy may open the way for pluralistic economic cooperation in the field of energy.