ECONOMICS DOES NOT JUSTIFY CHINA'S INVESTMENT IN GWADAR; THERE IS A SECURITY DIMENSION

Captain Alok Bansal’s Gwadar: A Chinese Gibraltar is the result of 18 years of painstaking research.

- SANJIB KR BARUAH

The Gwadar saga stretches back even further.

Pakistan had zeroed in on Gwadar to build a mega seaport in 1964, six years after acquiring it from Oman. The port would have the potential to accommodate super tankers and mother ships. And, that would be vital to attract the transit trade of central Asian nations. Moreover, it would allow Pakistan to keep an eye on the entire traffic to and from the crucial Persian Gulf.

But, work on the port began only in 2001. While the construction is almost complete, various associated projects are still in phases of development, including connectivity by road, rail and an airport. In 2013, the China Overseas Port Holding Company took over the leasing rights of the port and consequently Gwadar became a lynchpin in the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Gwadar takes away the maritime advantage India enjoys over China in the Indian Ocean and embeds China in the northern Arabian Sea, thereby threatening India’s maritime security. Also, it adds to Chinese and Pakistani capability to threaten India’s energy security.

THE WEEK spoke to Captain Bansal on Gwadar. Edited excerpts:

Q Why do you call Gwadar a Chinese Gibraltar?

A Gibraltar controls access to the Mediterranean. This has been a British possession on the southern coast of Spain, another country. But Britain, by its presence in Gibraltar, controls any entry or exit from the Mediterranean towards the Atlantic. Similarly, and to some extent even more, because Gwadar is at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, China can control any traffic that is entering or exiting the Persian Gulf. Here we also need to understand that unlike the Mediterranean, which is open at both ends, the Persian Gulf can only be exited from one point—the Strait of Hormuz—and Gwadar is just outside the strait. So any maritime position there can monitor every vessel that is leaving or entering the Persian Gulf.