[photopress:logistics_gwadar.jpg,full,alignright]There is concern in India about the expansion of the port at Gwadar in Pakistan. This, even though the port will be under the management to Singapore Port Authority which last year won a bid to operate the port for 40 years and even though China did not bid to operate the port. India has expressed serious concern about the port and its possibilities.
Indian Naval Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta said last week that the Gwadar port has ‘serious strategic implications for India.’
He said, ‘Being only 180 nautical miles from the exit of the Straits of Hormuz, Gwadar, being bulit in Baluchistan coast, would enable Pakistan take control over the world energy jugular and interdiction of Indian tankers.’
This statement chimes with US Colonel Christopher J. Pehrson’s study called: String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China’s Rising Power Across the Asian Littoral.
Admiral Mehta said that China is seeking to set up bases and outposts across the globe, strategically located along its energy lines, to monitor and safeguard energy flows.
Col. Pehron argues that the ‘String of Pearls’ describes the manifestation of China’s rising geopolitical influence through efforts to increase access to ports and airfields, develop special diplomatic relationships, and modernize military forces that extend from the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, and on to the Arabian Gulf.
Having said that the cost benefits to China of using Gwadar as the port for western China’s imports and exports are as evident as the long-term economic benefits to Pakistan of Gwadar becoming a port for Chinese goods.
The whole argument appears in full, with perhaps an anti-Chinese, pro-American bias in Source.
Source: Counter Currents
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