China`s Gwadar takeover not aimed at undermining 3rd party: Pak official

Beijing: China`s takeover of the strategic Gwadar Port in Pakistan was "not aimed at undermining the interests of any third party", a top Pakistani official has said.

Noor Muhammad Jadmani, special secretary of Asia-Pacific affairs at the Pakistan`s Foreign Ministry, has blamed "vested interests" for speculating that China could be use the port on the Arabian Sea for military purposes. The Port is a key component of the planned China-Pakistan economic corridor and cooperation on it "is not aimed at undermining the interests of any third party", Jadmani told state-run China Daily. He attributed the doubts cast over the port to "certain vested interests that would like to look at and give twists to the cooperation that we have carried out". The Gwadar port forms one part of the planned economic corridor project connecting Pakistan and China through PoK. The 2000-km long corridor linking China`s Xijiang province with Gwadar Port in Balochistan province close to Iran border skips Pakistan`s troubled regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as Balochistan provinces, another Chinese daily the Global Times reported recently. Instead it takes a huge diversion to avoid the militancy hit areas. "The construction of this corridor has to consider operational possibilities before it is initiated. As an unprecedented project which has to deal with many unexpected problems, it will seize as many existing advantages as possible," the article said. Pakistan has always focused on developing transportation networks in its eastern regions, especially Punjab and Sindh, therefore, it makes more practical sense to use existing infrastructure when the project starts, it said. The administrative authority for the port previously rested with a Singaporean company. It was transferred to a Chinese company in February by Pakistan. PTI