AI
Sunday, March 26, 2006 9:25:57 PM
Gwadar Port - Pakistani 'pearl' but a Chinese Gibraltar
March 26, 2006
By Mahendra Ved, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will Tuesday open the Gwadar Port on the Balochistan coast, giving his country a major naval base and a deep-sea port. But it is China that is already benefiting. From there, China can oversee India's western seaboard, East Africa and the vast Gulf region.
Map of Gwadar, red are possible oil lines.
The over $2 billion Gwadar project - which strategic analysts call 'a pearl in the Pakistani waters' or even a 'Chinese Gibraltar' - will allow berthing rights to Chinese ships and submarines. It will also afford China a safer sea-land alternative passage for its energy imports in case of any hostile interruption to its oil shipments, either in the Arabian Sea or around the Strait of Malacca.
This is possible since Pakistan and China are linked by the 1,200 km Karakoram Highway, most of which passes through Pakistani Kashmir.
According to the US director of net assessment, China is pursuing the strategy of 'a string of pearls' that incorporate building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to South China Sea in ways that suggest not only defensive but also offensive positioning to protect its energy interests, and also to serve broad security objectives by building bases.
The official said: 'Beijing has already set up electronic eavesdropping posts at Gwadar and is monitoring ship traffic through the Straits of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea.'
The Gwadar project has been designed and constructed by China, which has invested more than $200 million in it. A high-level Chinese official team will attend the inaugural function, Aaj TV channel reported from Islamabad.
It is also of significant strategic value for Pakistan, giving it the first major port outside the Karachi-Bin Qasim Complex. The port is the shortest and most cost-effective warm water opening for Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The construction work at Gwadar Port has been completed. But additional facilities would be installed with more Chinese funds coming in. A credit agreement of $22.26 million for additional dredging of Gwadar Deep Seaport project was signed Friday, Pakistan Today reported, quoting Xinhua.
Like the Kandla port in Gujarat, located at the mouth of a desert, Gwadar too has a problem of silting that requires dredging. Gwadar port would be functional after the completion of additional dredging of the channel to 14.5 meter, making it the deepest port of Pakistan and a trans-shipment port for the region.
The dredging, which has been undertaken by a Chinese company, will make Gwadar a regional hub, enabling the port to receive mother vessels. The cargo dropped by the mother vessels will be taken to Karachi and other regional ports by feeder vessels or trucks.
Besides dredging, the other, more important stumbling block is a militant movement by Balochi 'nationalists'. In 2004, militants had killed three Chinese technicians and wounded nine working at the Gwadar project. Musharraf's Pakistan Day address at Lahore on Thursday included a warning that the 'days of two or three sardars (chieftains)' spearheading the Baloch movement, allegedly with 'foreign help', were 'numbered'.
The Pakistani government had officially declared that the first phase of the project, which included the construction of three multipurpose berths, was completed ahead of schedule in April 2005.
But Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao could not open it during his visit to Pakistan. The Pakistani media had then said it was due to the 'poor security situation' in the area. Working to develop it both for military and commercial use, successive governments have received help from the US and Britain.
In the 1970s, the Shah of Iran helped out in a big way. The Chinese stepped in only in 2001 to develop it as a deep-sea port. The then Chinese vice premier Wu Bangguo laid the foundation in 2002.
As per Indian assessment, the total cost of the project may go up to $2.2 billion. An idea of the Chinese involvement can be had from the fact that the Chinese invested $198 million in the first phase, while the host country's contribution was $50 million.
This is Pakistan's largest infrastructure project since independence. Funds from non-resident Pakistanis, especially those working in the Gulf, have come in. With Chinese help, it has been completed in five years, which is really fast.
Copyright Indo-Asian News Service
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/11764.php/Gwadar_Port_-_Pakistani_pearl_but_a_Chinese_Gibraltar
March 26, 2006
By Mahendra Ved, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will Tuesday open the Gwadar Port on the Balochistan coast, giving his country a major naval base and a deep-sea port. But it is China that is already benefiting. From there, China can oversee India's western seaboard, East Africa and the vast Gulf region.
Map of Gwadar, red are possible oil lines.
The over $2 billion Gwadar project - which strategic analysts call 'a pearl in the Pakistani waters' or even a 'Chinese Gibraltar' - will allow berthing rights to Chinese ships and submarines. It will also afford China a safer sea-land alternative passage for its energy imports in case of any hostile interruption to its oil shipments, either in the Arabian Sea or around the Strait of Malacca.
This is possible since Pakistan and China are linked by the 1,200 km Karakoram Highway, most of which passes through Pakistani Kashmir.
According to the US director of net assessment, China is pursuing the strategy of 'a string of pearls' that incorporate building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to South China Sea in ways that suggest not only defensive but also offensive positioning to protect its energy interests, and also to serve broad security objectives by building bases.
The official said: 'Beijing has already set up electronic eavesdropping posts at Gwadar and is monitoring ship traffic through the Straits of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea.'
The Gwadar project has been designed and constructed by China, which has invested more than $200 million in it. A high-level Chinese official team will attend the inaugural function, Aaj TV channel reported from Islamabad.
It is also of significant strategic value for Pakistan, giving it the first major port outside the Karachi-Bin Qasim Complex. The port is the shortest and most cost-effective warm water opening for Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The construction work at Gwadar Port has been completed. But additional facilities would be installed with more Chinese funds coming in. A credit agreement of $22.26 million for additional dredging of Gwadar Deep Seaport project was signed Friday, Pakistan Today reported, quoting Xinhua.
Like the Kandla port in Gujarat, located at the mouth of a desert, Gwadar too has a problem of silting that requires dredging. Gwadar port would be functional after the completion of additional dredging of the channel to 14.5 meter, making it the deepest port of Pakistan and a trans-shipment port for the region.
The dredging, which has been undertaken by a Chinese company, will make Gwadar a regional hub, enabling the port to receive mother vessels. The cargo dropped by the mother vessels will be taken to Karachi and other regional ports by feeder vessels or trucks.
Besides dredging, the other, more important stumbling block is a militant movement by Balochi 'nationalists'. In 2004, militants had killed three Chinese technicians and wounded nine working at the Gwadar project. Musharraf's Pakistan Day address at Lahore on Thursday included a warning that the 'days of two or three sardars (chieftains)' spearheading the Baloch movement, allegedly with 'foreign help', were 'numbered'.
The Pakistani government had officially declared that the first phase of the project, which included the construction of three multipurpose berths, was completed ahead of schedule in April 2005.
But Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao could not open it during his visit to Pakistan. The Pakistani media had then said it was due to the 'poor security situation' in the area. Working to develop it both for military and commercial use, successive governments have received help from the US and Britain.
In the 1970s, the Shah of Iran helped out in a big way. The Chinese stepped in only in 2001 to develop it as a deep-sea port. The then Chinese vice premier Wu Bangguo laid the foundation in 2002.
As per Indian assessment, the total cost of the project may go up to $2.2 billion. An idea of the Chinese involvement can be had from the fact that the Chinese invested $198 million in the first phase, while the host country's contribution was $50 million.
This is Pakistan's largest infrastructure project since independence. Funds from non-resident Pakistanis, especially those working in the Gulf, have come in. With Chinese help, it has been completed in five years, which is really fast.
Copyright Indo-Asian News Service
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/11764.php/Gwadar_Port_-_Pakistani_pearl_but_a_Chinese_Gibraltar
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