2024-09-20 09:21:22
Islamabad: Pakistan has always tried to balance its relations with China and the US. At the same time, both the US and China have been trying to increase their influence by taking advantage of political instability in Pakistan. Drop Site News has claimed on the basis of secret documents that Pakistan had promised China a place to build a military base in Gwadar. This happened when it could not succeed in luring the US. Apart from this, Islamabad also assured Beijing’s long-standing demand to authorize joint military operations inside Pakistan.
The report says that in October 2022, Pakistan’s military chief Qamar Javed Bajwa went on an official visit to Washington in an effort to improve relations with the US. Bajwa wanted to assure Washington that the Pakistani army was looking towards the US and not towards China or Russia. In the US, Bajwa promised that the priority of the Pakistani army would be emphasized for Washington as compared to Beijing. Pakistan’s attempt was to gain the same support and trust of the US, in which it did not succeed. After the failure of the US bet, Pakistani officials accelerated their efforts to improve relations with China. Documents show that to woo China, Pakistan promised it that Beijing would be given approval for a military base at the port of Gwadar.
How did China and Pakistan come closer
In the year 2021, relations between America and Pakistan started getting sour. In March this year, Pak Army Chief Qamar Bajwa personally met the Chinese Defense Minister. During this, Bajwa said that China is a very important neighbor and has helped us in many ways. In Pakistani intelligence assessment, it considers China a more important strategic ally than America. Both have also been seen on the same platform in the Kashmir region. In the year 2019, the Indian government officially removed the special status of Kashmir. This was a provocation not only for Pakistan but also for China, as it questioned China’s territorial claim to India’s disputed Ladakh region, where deadly clashes took place between Chinese and Indian soldiers in 2020.
Over the past decade, Pakistan has become home to a Chinese-backed infrastructure building project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Despite billions of rupees invested, results on the ground have been disappointing and Pakistan government debt is mounting. The internal report highlights Pakistan’s desire to ensure that its relations with the US and China are not one-sided. Analyst Adam Weinstein says the Pakistani military believes in maintaining a balance between Chinese and US military ties.
Why America and India’s concerns may increase
Secret documents say Pakistan’s military-backed government privately promised Beijing a military base in the key port of Gwadar. Gwadar is a key player in China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative. The corridor’s final leg through Pakistan would link China’s economy to the West and make it less dependent on shipping transiting the South China Sea.
Beijing’s ambitions for Gwadar have worried not only Washington but also India. Gwadar is located on the Arabian Sea coast at the mouth of the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. A military base there would transform China’s ability to project force beyond its territory and free it from dependence on maritime energy shipping routes in Southeast Asia, while weakening Washington’s containment strategy against Beijing.