Gwadar Watch Thread

25 February 2009


The Pakistani government must immediately act on its commitment to trace hundreds of Baluch victims of enforced disappearances, Amnesty International said today.

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Local people in Baluchistan are demanding a bigger share of the revenue generated by the province's natural resources, principally natural gas, which they believe now benefit other provinces. A number of Baluchi groups are seeking more rights for the province. Some of these groups have resorted to violence, while others are campaigning peacefully. The Pakistani national government has attempted to suppress this opposition by increasing the military presence in the region. Many people have died at the hands of the security forces in extrajudicial executions and deaths in custody, and thousands of people are reported to have "disappeared".

One reason that Beijing wants desperately to integrate Taiwan into its dominion is so that it can redirect its naval energies away from the Taiwan Strait and toward the Indian Ocean.

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As the competition between India and China suggests, the Indian Ocean is where global struggles will play out in the twenty-first century.

The government has declared the Gwadar Port as a tax free zone for ten years with an aim to boost the exports besides promoting trade

Unless and until there is peace and stability in Afghanistan, the prospects of Gwadar emerging as the gateway for the external trade of the CARs will remain weak.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani has demanded control of the Gwadar deep seaport and called for cancellation of agreement with the Singapore Port Authority.

Originally posted by Hellmutt

If the US starts bombing oil facilities in Iran for instance, China will be very angry.

July 08, 2010


Several Chinese engineers working in Balochistan survived an attempt on their lives when unidentified assailants fired two rockets at a five -star hotel in the provincial metropolis, in a pre-dawn attack on Wednesday.

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The Chinese engineers had arrived in Gwadar recently and were reportedly working on an oil refinery. Official sources believe that they were the targets of the attack.

“Not being an Indian Ocean power there are limitations in the way PLA Navy can be deployed in the Indian Ocean region. China is working towards a strategy to overcome this deficiency by creating dependency ports from Gwadar to Myanmar.”

The reason for China to establish an Indian Ocean presence is to ensure that the sea lines of communication that transport its energy from Middle East and Africa are safeguarded

The nations of Southeast Asia are building up their militaries, buying submarines and jet fighters at a record pace and edging closer strategically to the United States as a hedge against China's rise and its claims to all of the South China Sea.

Aug 31 2010


The Army has received confirmation that China deployed an infantry battalion of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at the 15,397-feet Khunjerab Pass on the Karakoram highway this month for the security of its workers engaged in building a railroad. This railroad will eventually connect Xinjiang to the port of Gwadar in Balochistan, Pakistan.

26 Sep, 2010


It has been a good week for Sino-Pak relations. China reiterated its commitment to expanding the Chashma nuclear energy complex by building two additional reactors, and pooh-poohed any talk of seeking approval from the Nuclear Suppliers Group for the project.

Moreover, while addressing a United Nations anti-poverty summit, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao announced $200mn — in addition to the $47mn already pledged — in emergency flood aid for Pakistan.

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Pakistan is quite happy to let China traverse its territory to gain access to Gwadar, and through that port, to the Gulf. After all, Chinese investment means infrastructure development for Pakistan, as well as added benefits such as the civilian nuclear power deals.

September 25, 2010


[---]Plans to build a rail line from Kashgar to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan would link the Chinese-built port of Gwadar with China and, with an accompanying pipeline, shave days off oil shipments from the Persian Gulf. Dubbed the “Iron Silk Road” by Chinese media, the route passes through disputed and nearly anarchic Pakistani territory. This scheme, which involves military infrastructure near Indian territory in a disputed zone, worries India; in July, the country’s minister of state and defense expressed “concern” over the project.

September 05, 2012

BEIJING - Ahead of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s visit here, China on Tuesday tacitly confirmed reports that it was taking over the strategic Gwadar deep water port in Balochistan, which it may convert into an oil pipeline hub to augment its energy supplies from the Gulf.

Robert D. Kaplan, the distinguished geopolitical analyst of Stratfor, who authored at least fourteen books, writes about the Balochistan province of Pakistan as, “One key to its fate is the future of Gwadar, a strategic port whose development will either unlock the riches of Central Asia, or plunge Pakistan into a savage, and potentially terminal, civil war.” What we are witnessing today in Balochistan is the true manifestation of the ‘Resource Curse Theory’ or the deciding time of the Kaplon’s analysis. Balochistan is a prey to conspiracies by different regional and extra-regional powers.

Located at the mouth of Persian Gulf, right at the proximity of the Straits of Hormuz, the Gwadar port of Pakistan has a strategic significance. Since the major shipping route connecting three main continents; Asia, Africa and Europe are passing through the vicinity of this port, therefore, it has attained the status of a key strategic and commercial port. Over sixty percent of global trade and transportation of oil tankers takes place through the neighbouring waters of the Gwadar Port.

AFP | 3 days ago


Pakistan on Wednesday approved a deal transferring from Singapore to China the management of the strategically located deep-sea Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.

03 February 2013


China can thwart any Indian move in the strategically important regions — or for that matter, in any battle zone — by mobilising over 70,000 troops in one go by air and sea, compared to a mere 3,000 by India, that too, only through the waters.

India’s Defence planners are a worried lot after China conducted the first flight trial of indigenously-built Y-20 last week. Capable of airlifting 66 tons, Y-20, a medium transport aircraft, will enable China to make its airborne corps (30,000 soldiers) fully operational.

Having ensured uninterrupted energy supply to propel its growing economy by gaining control of Gwadar Port, China is now projecting power by enhancing its air and naval capabilities to make land forces reach the intended areas of operations.

A top foreign policy aide of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that his country is not trying to sabotage the Gwadar deep-sea port which is portrayed by Western analysts as a rival to Iran’s Chabahar port.

“Enemies [of Iran and Pakistan] want to destabilise the relationship between the two countries through negative propaganda,” Ali Akbar Walaiti, who is also former foreign minister of Iran, told journalists at Iranian consulate in Quetta on Sunday.

Pakistani cabinet approved earlier this week transfer of Gwadar port to China. Asked about the decision, Walaiti said it was for the people of Pakistan to decide how to utilise the port. “Tehran supports Pakistan’s decisions,” he added.

March 7, 2013


Iran plans to set up the largest refinery in Pakistan, a US$4 billion facility at Gwadar in the country's southwestern Balochistan province.

Islamabad and Tehran are set to sign a deal for the refinery, which will have a 400,000 barrels per day capacity, on March 11 [2013], the day two sides have announced they will begin the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project on their border.

Iran’s plan to lay an oil pipeline and establish an oil refinery in Gwadar is likely to raise eyebrows in Washington, which is already opposed to the IP (Iran-Pakistan) gas pipeline.

China last month took over operational control of Gwadar Port and agreed to put funding in place that will make it the biggest investor in the port city after simultaneously becoming the builder, financer and operator of the Arabian Sea port, which is located near the Strait of Hormuz, through which most of its oil imports transit. A major oil refinery could turn Gwadar into a transit terminal for Iranian and African crude oil imports.

An oil pipeline from Gwadar to western China will reduce the time and distance for oil transport from the Gulf to China and a major oil refinery at Gwadar would further facilitate China’s oil imports.

Saturday, March 30, 2013


Addressing the commissioning ceremony in Gwadar, Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Muhammad Shafiq, the chief guest, said the country was braving internal and external threats, making security today’s main concern.

He said the Marines always remained steadfast and proved their mettle whenever the nation needed them.

Whether it is border defence in creek areas, air defence of Navy assets, security of sensitive areas, aid to civil power during natural disasters or countering acts of terrorism, the Marines have always lived up to the expectations of the nation, he added.