China has started work on a strategic Port at Gwadar in Pakistan's southern coast which could act as an observation post for China to oversee the developments in Central Asian states as well as Gulf of Oman.
Chinese Communication Minister Huang Zhengdong, currently in Pakistan, visited Makran coastal highway project on Monday while a large team of Chinese engineers began evaluation work at Gwadar to prepare a blue print to build the one billion dollar modern commercial port, official sources in said. China is also providing Rs 15 billion for building coastal highways to connect various Pakistani cities.
Gwadar, 290 nautical miles of Karachi, is meant to give Beijing a potential staging ground to exert influence along the shipping lanes of the Gulf and allow both the countries to outflank India strategically, US media reports had said.
While both Pakistan and China have denied press reports that a secret understanding has been reached to allow Chinese naval vessels to dock at Gwadar, Both sides have talked openly of increasing economic strategic ties and the heavy Chinese involvement in the US1 billion (port) deal is a prime example, a report in Washington Post had said recently. The commercial deal, agreed during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's recent visit to Pakistan, Can easily set the stage for military cooperation in the future, An Asian expert Richard Fisher of the Jamestown foundation, told the paper.
The project includes development of a mega deep-sea port with road connections to Karachi to the east and Asghabat, the capital of Turkmenestan to the northwest. Bureau Report