Gwadar: An Emerging Centre of The New Great Game: Syed Fazl-e-Haider
Gwadar: An Emerging Centre of The New Great Game: Syed Fazl-e-Haider
Gwadar: An Emerging Centre of The New Great Game: Syed Fazl-e-Haider
Gwadar:
An Emerging Centre of the New Great Game
Historically Gwadar, a fishing
village along the Balochistan
coast, has been one of the
main routes of communication
between the Middle East and
India. Situated on the mouth of
the Gulf of Oman, Gwadar
remained a part of the Omani
Sultanate
until
September
1958. The then Prime Minister
of Pakistan, Feroz Khan Noon,
realizing the geographic and
strategic importance of the
area,
purchased
it
in
September 1958, when Sultan
Said Bin Taimur allowed it to be
integrated into Pakistan in
return for a payment of 3 million
pounds sterling. In 1992 the
Nawaz
Sharif
government
decided to build a deep sea
port at Gwadar, and its
construction accelerated under
Musharraf.
The upgrading of the deep-sea
port and future plans for
important oil pipelines traversing
Baluchistan will enhance the
strategic value of Pakistan:
Gwadar, once completed, will
attract new investment, bolster
the countrys strategic defensives,
and serve as an energy corridor
for Central Asia, South Asia and
western China, earning Islamabad significant profits in transit
fees. The quest for energy
security
and
geostrategic
imperatives has also attracted
the attention of China, India,
the USA and Russia, all part of
the new great game focused
around Gwadar.
Chinas Role
It is the Chinese connection
with Gwadar that has attracted
most attention from regional
security observers. China has
transparent interests in monitoring
the supply routes for its rapidly
increasing energy shipments
from the Persian Gulf and in
opening an alternative route via
Pakistan for import/export trade
serving Chinas vast, restive,
and rapidly developing Muslimmajority Xinjiang Autonomous
Region. Gwadar has become
Chinas most favorable choice
for oil trade, as the present
choke point of oil trade at
Hormuz is becoming congested.
About 80 per cent of Chinas oil
imports flow through the narrow
Strait of Malacca, which is
considered as unsafe route and
is
notorious
for
piracy.
Gwadars location opposite to
the Straits of Hormuz provides
China an alternative to the
Strait of Malacca Chinas
eastern seaboard ports are
3,500 kilometers away from
Kashgar, western Chinas main
city, whereas the distance from
Kashgar to the Pakistani
coastal town of Gwadar is only
1,500 kilometers. Proximity of
Xinjiang to Gwadar also makes
it feasible and cost-effective for
China to carry out trade through
this port which is close to the
Gulf, Central Asia, Europe and
Africa. Given this fact, there is
an
obvious
huge
cost
advantage for China to use
Gwadar as the gateway port for
its western region.
Abstract
The port of Gwadar, in southern
Balochistan, is expected to
become the terminus of three
proposed gas pipelines reaching
either from Daulatabads fields in
Turkmenistan, South Pars fields in
Iran or from Qatar.
The control of these oil and gas
reserves is at the centre of a new
great game, which is
complicated by the Chinese
presence in Gwadar, near the
Strait of Hormuz, Americas
military presence in the Af-Pak
region, and ethnic unrest in
Balochistan.
The Iran-Pakistan
Gas Pipeline Deal
The proposal of laying a gas
pipelines from the Daulatabad
fields in Turkmenistan or South
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