PDFChamp
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2016
- Messages
- 489
- Reaction score
- 6
- Country
- Location
For millennia, the bay of Gwadar was the preserve of a handful of fishermen, its perfect habour offering access to nothing but the infamous wasteland where Alexander the Great saw his army die of thirst.
Now this small fishing town is the center of a strategic gambit as ambitious as anything attempted by Alexander - and the lynch pin of an alliance between Pakistan and China that could up-end the entire balance of power in the Indian Ocean.
“It is going to be like Dubai,” said captain Gul Mohammed, a friendly, British-trained master mariner during a boat trip beneath the grey, science-fiction set cliffs framing the bay earlier this month. “Sure, its ambitious. But they’ll do it.”
Capt Muhammed, a Karachi-born merchant seaman who traded in a career on the high seas to spend more time with his family, is head of marine operations here - the man responsible for keeping channels dredged, lights and buoys in order, and ships from colliding in the bay's brand new industrial port.
At another level, he is also the smiling face of a grand quid-pro-quo with profound implications for the global balance of economic and military power.
Gwadar Port, the development he now oversees, is the last stop on the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, a vast program of transport and infrastructure development from the Chinese border to the Indian Ocean.
The deal goes something like this: Pakistan gets massive and much needed infrastructure investment while China gets access to a warm water port 350 miles from the Straits of Hormuz - a key part of its “one belt one road” initiative to develop commercial logistics links with Europe.
The project is big news in Pakistan. China has committed $62 billion to the initiative - a colossal sum that its supporters hope will kick start the entire national economy.
But the initial motive, from Pakistan's point of view at least, was driven less by strategic vision than necessity, said Muhammed Zubair, one of the architects of the scheme.
“Pakistan faced an imminent blackout. The Demand supply gap was widening by the day and there was not a single power station under construction,” said Mr Zubair, who is now the governor of Sindh province but previously advised the government on tax and economic reform.
“We calculated we needed $30 to 35 billion to fix it, and there was no way Pakistan could generate that kind of money. That’s what prompted us towards the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
China had the money and the vision. But, says Mr Zubair, there should be no naivety about China’s motives.
“When you become a superpower and you are sitting on tons and tons of cash, what do you do with that? You have to go global,” said Mr Zubair, said in an interview in his Karachi residence.
So I would not question that they have far more objectives than a win-win for China and Pakistan in economic terms. They want to compete with the United States. This gives them the security leverage that they desperately need,” he said.
Pakistani officials speak frankly about the deal cementing a long-standing alliance that they see as insurance against a hostile India and a way of finally breaking free of an increasingly acrimonious relationship with the United States.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...inside-pakistani-port-town-china-using-build/
Now this small fishing town is the center of a strategic gambit as ambitious as anything attempted by Alexander - and the lynch pin of an alliance between Pakistan and China that could up-end the entire balance of power in the Indian Ocean.
“It is going to be like Dubai,” said captain Gul Mohammed, a friendly, British-trained master mariner during a boat trip beneath the grey, science-fiction set cliffs framing the bay earlier this month. “Sure, its ambitious. But they’ll do it.”
Capt Muhammed, a Karachi-born merchant seaman who traded in a career on the high seas to spend more time with his family, is head of marine operations here - the man responsible for keeping channels dredged, lights and buoys in order, and ships from colliding in the bay's brand new industrial port.
At another level, he is also the smiling face of a grand quid-pro-quo with profound implications for the global balance of economic and military power.
Gwadar Port, the development he now oversees, is the last stop on the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, a vast program of transport and infrastructure development from the Chinese border to the Indian Ocean.
The deal goes something like this: Pakistan gets massive and much needed infrastructure investment while China gets access to a warm water port 350 miles from the Straits of Hormuz - a key part of its “one belt one road” initiative to develop commercial logistics links with Europe.
The project is big news in Pakistan. China has committed $62 billion to the initiative - a colossal sum that its supporters hope will kick start the entire national economy.
But the initial motive, from Pakistan's point of view at least, was driven less by strategic vision than necessity, said Muhammed Zubair, one of the architects of the scheme.
“Pakistan faced an imminent blackout. The Demand supply gap was widening by the day and there was not a single power station under construction,” said Mr Zubair, who is now the governor of Sindh province but previously advised the government on tax and economic reform.
“We calculated we needed $30 to 35 billion to fix it, and there was no way Pakistan could generate that kind of money. That’s what prompted us towards the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
China had the money and the vision. But, says Mr Zubair, there should be no naivety about China’s motives.
“When you become a superpower and you are sitting on tons and tons of cash, what do you do with that? You have to go global,” said Mr Zubair, said in an interview in his Karachi residence.
So I would not question that they have far more objectives than a win-win for China and Pakistan in economic terms. They want to compete with the United States. This gives them the security leverage that they desperately need,” he said.
Pakistani officials speak frankly about the deal cementing a long-standing alliance that they see as insurance against a hostile India and a way of finally breaking free of an increasingly acrimonious relationship with the United States.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...inside-pakistani-port-town-china-using-build/
Last edited:
