The newly constructed Gwadar port, strategically located on the Baluchistan coast near the Iranian border, some 180 nautical miles from the Straits of Hormuz, has been in the news recently, with Pakistan’s information minister objecting to a statement made by the Indian navy chief and accusing India of meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs and provoking the ongoing insurgency in Baluchistan.

Gwadar port was part of Oman till 1958, when the British engineered its sale to Pakistan for $8 million. Pakistan uses the sea for 97 per cent of its trade and 78 per cent of its oil imports. Conscious of the strategic limitations of having only one major port (Karachi), which could be blockaded in times of war, Pakistan built an additional naval base at Ormara and the Gwadar port to provide flexibility of operations for its navy. Gwadar served as a bridge to Afghanistan, China and Central Asia. It also provided a way of importing oil by land from Central Asia. The Gwadar project was completed in 2005 and cost $248 million, of which the Chinese contributed $198 million.

This magnanimous Chinese contribution must be seen in the light of its ‘string of pearls’ policy, where it has set up port facilities available to its navy to ensure safety of its imported oil, being shipped from the Gulf to China. It also so happens that the Gwadar port, when connected by the proposed road, rail and possibly oil pipeline links to China and Central Asia, provides China with additional ‘oil insurance’, along with access to the Arabian Sea. But this ‘string of pearls’ could threaten India’s maritime interests, since 90 per cent of our trade and 75 per cent of our imported oil move by sea.

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