Development of the Pakistani port of Gwadar, located at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, commenced with the official groundbreaking ceremony on March 22.
In his address to dignitaries assembled from China and Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, declared that history was being made in the relationship between Pakistan and China, its principle partner in the project.
China is contributing heavily in both capital investment and provision of the technology to this $1.16 billion mega-project.
Although both Pakistan and China have sought to play down the strategic nature of this project, many see it as offering not only the prospect of easing China’s trade access to the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe via the Straits of Hormuz, but also giving it a key strategic outlet for its navy. The Washington Times reported a secret understanding reached between Pakistan and China to permit Chinese naval vessels to dock at Gwadar.
This huge development includes a deep-sea port with land connections to Karachi in the east and Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, in the northwest. Gwadar, on Pakistan’s Makran coast, is ideally sighted as a principal deep-water port facilitating the shipping of general merchandise from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. In addition, it is ideally sited to service the lucrative trade in crude oil and petroleum products that flow south from the world’s chief suppliers of black gold in the Middle East. It offers the most suitable location as a terminus for the pipelines which will carry oil from Iran in the future projected development of an Iran-Pakistani refinery.
Richard Fisher of the Jamestown Foundation observes that the commercial deal on which the Chinese-Pakistan project for the port of Gwadar development is based “can easily set the stage for military cooperation in the future” (DAWN, May 31).
China and Pakistan being tied together in this massive development presents a problem to India as well as a fillip to Pakistan. As Stratfor Systems points out, Pakistan “is looking towards naval cooperation with India’s eastern neighbors to gain something that it has not had since East Pakistan became Bangladesh—the ability to flank India” (May 2, 2001).
Pakistan, in partnership with China, is set to be a key player in the future of the Persian Gulf. As President Musharraf observed during his address at the ground-breaking ceremony, “There is no doubt that Gwadar port, when operational, will play the role of a regional hub for trade and commercial activity.”
Watch for the Chinese to piggyback military cooperation onto this important strategic venture when the time is right.