Shahid Jameel
Gwadar Port is located near the Strait of Hormuz which is the only maritime route for the oil supply of Gulf States. World’s 40% oil is supplied from the Strait of Hormuz. Gwadar port is suitable for shipping in entire year due to warm climate of Balochistan. While the seas of those countries which are in cold regions become unsuitable for shipping in whole year due to ice burgs in sea. This makes it important for these countries in order to do their trade activities constantly in entire year. Different civilizations could be seen staying on the coastal areas because maritime routes had been used for the trade activities, and the modern trade increased the need of trade through maritime routes. For this purpose, the importance of Balochistan is like a gateway or an important commercial door. Balochistan has borders with Afghanistan and Iran, and it had always played an important and central role in the regional politics of both neighboring countries. The progress on Gwadar Port has been the most significant development task in recent years. Once developed, the port would be a game changer for the province, CPEC will open up new avenues of opportunities for the people of Balochistan. It is envisioned that Gwadar would be transformed into an economic hub and will subsequently contribute towards the development of the whole province, resulting in addressing the various economic and social problems of Balochistan.
Since the start of global war on terror by the US and coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2001, India has been struggling to propagate that Pakistan was an epicenter of terrorism in the region. India has been doing that with two main objectives. One, to antagonize the US and European major powers with Pakistan anticipating that ultimately Pakistan will be penalized by the US in the ways to undermine its nuclear capability to give a clear edge to India in South Asia. Second, by trying to equate the indigenous freedom struggle of the Kashmiris’ as terrorism, India wanted that the western countries should not support the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. However, to India’s disappointment, while Pakistan became a part of the coalition to fight the war on terror, the US and other western powers also witnessed that Pakistan’s role in fighting was on terror was of central value and therefore they did not buy India’s false propaganda against Pakistan. Nevertheless, after becoming a strategic partner of the US and having been declared by the US as a lynchpin of its Asia pivot policy, aimed at containing rising China, India was feeling much elevated and privileged. In this backdrop, in the changed post withdrawal scenario (from Afghanistan), India had become further encouraged to note that the US was tending to favor India over Pakistan in South Asia and its support for the Kashmir issue was looking to be eroding. After the signing the CPEC agreement between Pakistan and China, India was extremely dismayed to learn that the CPEC project involving Chinese investment of billions in Pakistan, was going to be a game changer for transforming Pakistan’s economy in a major way.
India’s objective to develop the strategically located Chabahar port along with the one with Afghanistan on road and rail network is meant to counter China and Pakistan’s alliance in South West Asia. India is to invest millions on development of the Chabahar port, but the bigger questions of feasibility of logistical linkages still remain unanswered. However, the question is whether India would gain much from Chabahar port and whether its efforts to bypass Gwadar would pay dividends? In fact, the cost and freight of the shipments from India to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asian states would be prohibitive. Thus, ultimately cost effectiveness will decide about the success of the ports, as distance from Mumbai to Chabahar is 930 nautical miles (1800 kilometer), and from Chabahar to Kabul is 1851kilometer, whereas distance from Gwadar to Kabul is 450 kilometer. India is confident that the US will continue to provide it all the required strategic military support to make it a major world power and would prefer it over Pakistan in South Asia to limit Chinese and Russian influence in Asia. However, India still continues to pursue its independent foreign policy, as it did by not supporting the US against Russia over Ukraine crises, in its sanctions against Iran and in the Syrian conflict. India by now must have realized that CPEC project is getting recognition at international level under the very watchful eyes of international community. It would be very difficult for India to dent the CPEC project under present circumstances as her evil designs have already been widely compromised before the world. Hence it would be more logical for India to resolve its outstanding disputes with Pakistan through dialogue and join the CPEC to reap connected economic benefits rather than hurdling and opposing it.
