Gwadar Watch Thread

I noticed the riots, but I had no idea that they were related to Gwadar. Great find, makeitso March 20, that's tomorrow...

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Here's a picture from the riots. Hundreds of lawyers wearing black suits vs. police


Photo: AP

The desalination plant in Gwadar was opened yesterday. Today they will open the Gwadar port. However, they have managed to get only three ships for the opening ceremony.



edit: can't spall...

[edit on 2007/3/20 by Hellmutt]

Excellent! Ill be watching this space. Always wondered how that was shaping up, glad someone here's looking. This is the end of the line for that trans-Afghan pipeline corridor to feed East asia - will be a big deal. Sorry no tme to read all now...

lol..
It looks like one of those lawyers is brandishing a stick of his own!


May I inquire the quaint interest in Gwadar Helmutt?


Gwadar could serve as a very 'convinient' listening post for the Chinese esp in relation to certain USN fleet movements in and around the Straits of Hormuz.

The chinese are known to procure-develop 'strategically' located obervation posts(REad Cocos Islands, Myanmar)

Originally posted by Daedalus3

May I inquire the quaint interest in Gwadar Helmutt?

I find Gwadar to be a very interesting and important place. Astronomical amounts of money have been invested there. Gwadar has huge strategic value in many ways, and there's apparently a proxy war going on there. India has nukes. Pakistan has nukes. China has nukes. And the US is involved everywhere. A major incident at Gwadar could in the worst case trigger a nuclear war. That's why I'm interested in Gwadar.


Btw, Pakistan are planning to import 500 MW more electricity from Iran...

Yep with the Indians making inroads into the Pacific, the Chinese are trying to debut in the Indian Ocean/Arabian Sea/Bay of Bengal.

Here's an interesting link:

Indian Fleet Leaves on 'Historic' Trip

Anyways I doubt 'nukes' in particular have much to do with value of Gwadar. Like I said before, with 3 CSGs in and around the Straits of Hormuz , Gwadar serves as an excellent position for eavesdropping,observing and cataloguing info on USN vessels. After All all the action is in a 500km radius off Gwadar.

If you can see Gwadar is only ~100km from the Iranian border.
hence Gwadar also allows the Pakistan Navy to get some buffer distance between itself and the ever-growing Indian surface fleet. High-Value naval assets at Gwadar can be guarded and alerted to any possible IN adventure by Pakistani naval EW further down the coast; i.e. in and around Karachi.
In order to sneak up on Gwadar un-noticed the IN would need to approach the port on an axis which would actually put it close to ME countries like Oman. This area is crowded as it is with the USN,RN etc etc..all jamboreeing there.

Finally(I think this has been mentioned here before) Gwadar can possibly allow Pakistan to exert influence over all vital shipping lanes in the region. Thus Pakistan(and more importnatly China) can keep watch over their energy supply routes from the MiddleEast. The Gwadar port can also serve as a route by which chinese energy supplies transit through Pakistan and into China without ever having to go through the Straits of Malacca and US allies in ASEAN.

However there is another twist to it all:
The region that connects Pakistan and China is rife with the Kashmir problem
and India has just finished construction of its first foreign AFB at Ayni, Tajikistan.

Complications complications..

Btw if you want a real heavy-duty naval yard, then check this out.



Project Seabird: Asia's largest Naval Base in the making:

"China's submarines, especially its nuclear attack submarines, will frequent Gwadar [a deep sea port in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, which is being described as China's 'listening post' in the Persian Gulf] in the near future. Besides monitoring Chinese naval movements in these waters, India will have to keep an eye on Pakistan's deployment of its newest submarines - the new Air Independent Propulsion [AIP] submarines, like the French Scorpene," Prabhakar says.

"AIP submarines are the quietest ones in the class; running deep and running silent. The varying isothermal layers of the Arabian Sea, owing to the warmth of the waters and salinity, renders detecting sonar signals extremely complicated. Hence the need to have a geostrategic naval base in between Mumbai and Kochi would result in better surveillance and reconnaissance," Prabhakar says, adding that the sea lanes of communication in the Arabian Sea would be monitored better.

Source

though this article is old (2005 vintage), it makes interesting claims:

1) Chinese SSNs WILL visit Gwadar. Boy that's like leaving a cat among the rats. With all the USN & o. activity in the area, PLAN SSNs would just awesomely complicate it all.

2) Karwar to be the largest port in Asia which will eventually house IN carriers and nuclear subs. That makes this a prime target for conventional as well as nuclear strikes. The base is said to be blessed with natural geololgical advatages likes higlands and cliff faces which tend to shield high-value naval assets from all kinds of surveillance.


From Google Earth pics it looks like the Gwadar initiative hasn't quite picked up as yet.. but 200billion USD is a lot of money, as compared to a measly 9 billion USD for Project Seabird.
Another thing about Gwadar is it is in terrain that is sooo visible from sat surveillance..
Interesting natural beaching though!

Gwadar:




Project Seabird:

An earthquake has hit Gwadar. No immediate reports of any damage or casualties.

Mild quake jolts southwest Pakistan

Cyclone Gonu

Cyclone Gonu have caused lots of damage already. More than 100 anchored boats have been damaged in Gwadar, and over 100 fishermen are missing.

Pakistan Times: Pakistani fishermen asked to stay ashore


Dawn: Storm, tidal waves lash Makran coast


Related ATS Thread:
Cat 5 Hurricane in Persian Gulf!!! Weather Wars or Wrath of God???

Here's a bit different view of the port that I ran accross.

Gwadar Port WikiMapia

A Controversial Dam

A dam is said to have contributed to the recent flooding in Balochistan, which was caused by a freak weather system. Whole villages were washed away, at least 70,000 lost their homes and hundreds have died. The locals protested a lot when this dam was being built, and they said they didn't want it. It was built anyway despite the protests, and the locals were told: "it's for your own good"...


BBC: Pakistan's dam of sorrow?

Five million...

Someone apparently tried to kill Musharraf!



Pakistan security official says Musharraf plane fired on

...and here's a thread about the latest assassination attempt on Musharraf.



Possible Assassination Attempt on Pakistani President Musharraf (by the_sentinal)

A stewardess has been arrested when she tried to board a plane from Karachi to Gwadar while carrying a gun.


Pakistani Flight Attendant Caught With Weapon

This thread just came to my attention --another Hellmutt gold-- and despite maybe the most important geopolitical move in todays world, it is about 100% blacked out by MSN.

Watch the Indian Ocean, the strtegic most important stretch of the globe, and that's where it's gonna happen. When it happens.

*BUMP*

The first cargo ship carrying wheat will be anchored at Gwadar Port on March 15.


Pakistan Times: First ship anchors at Gwadar Port on March 15

Gwadar port begins its cargo handling from Saturday. Contruction of a network of roads is still in process, to connect Gwadar with Iran, Afghanistan and China.


Gwadar Port cargo handling kicks off

Originally posted by Hellmutt
The Chinese have invested at least over $200 Billion (two hundred Billion dollars!) in Gwadar alone

Its nowhere near 200 billion

Its 200 million for the initial highway linking Gwadar.

I wonder if it's crossed the mind of anyone in power that once this port is open, "something" that would block the Straits of Hormuiz (sp) might mean that all Iraq oil would have to goto this port, and maybe most of Iran's. (Radiation makes areas risky to work in.)

Now could foreknowledge of such a thing have bearing on all those cables that were cut last month, which run through the area that planners might want to see closed?

I naturally have no answers, but it does make one wonder about global chess games.

Gwadar has been declared a tax-free zone for the next 20 years.


Gwadar port declared tax-free zone for 20 years