{"id":42237,"date":"2018-01-06T00:04:09","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T19:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=42237"},"modified":"2018-01-06T00:04:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T19:04:09","slug":"china-building-a-military-base-in-pakistan-claims-newsweek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=42237","title":{"rendered":"China building a military base in Pakistan: claims Newsweek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, Jan. 5 (TNS):<\/strong> As the Trump administration announced plans to cut all security funding to Pakistan, Beijing revealed\u00a0it would build an offshore naval base near a strategic Pakistani port, US media reported on Friday.<\/p>\n

The naval base will be located in the Gwadar port in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, reports Newsweek.<\/p>\n

Chinese military officials told the\u00a0South China Morning Post<\/em>\u00a0that the new base was necessary because the current port, which caters mostly to merchant ships, is unable to supply the services and logistical support Chinese warships need.<\/p>\n

The project\u00a0would mark China’s second foreign military base\u00a0in the world, after a recent expansion in Africa.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes as regional experts warn that China is replacing the U.S. as Pakistan\u2019s most important security partner and is using Pakistan to gain increased access to the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s increased investments in Pakistan, combined with President Donald Trump\u2019s recent decision to cut all funding to the country, is driving Pakistan into Beijing\u2019s arms, experts warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese investment in Pakistan is expected to reach over $46 billion by 2030 with the creation of a [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] connecting Balochistan\u2019s Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea with Kashgar in Western China,\u201d Harrison Akins, a researcher at the Howard Baker Center who focuses on Pakistan and China, told\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump will soon find that his ability to unilaterally exert pressure to promote U.S. policy and security abroad is severely limited, as Pakistan has increasingly relied upon China for economic and military assistance,\u201d Akins added.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration announced on Thursday\u00a0it would cut all security aid to Pakistan because the country has failed to address the presence of terrorist networks operating within its borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis does little to promote U.S. interests and security and may actively hurt them as we have lost a key ally in the region,\u201d Akins told\u00a0Newsweek.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trump administration officials, however, say that China and the U.S. share common interests in Pakistan, especially when it comes to security and counter-terrorism.<\/p>\n

“China shares some of the concerns with the U.S. The U.S. is working with other regional players and it\u2019s also not in China\u2019s interest in having sanctuary for terrorists in Pakistan,” a senior administration official told\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“What we have seen is an interest from Pakistan in having a relationship with both the U.S. and China,” the official said.<\/p>\n

The Gwadar port plays an important role in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is a major component of Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s expansive \u201cOne Belt One Road\u201d economic initiative. The corridor includes infrastructure project worth billions of dollars that aim to link China with economic initiatives in Africa and Europe.<\/p>\n

Chinese ships patrolling the Indian Ocean must obtain supplies that are currently unavailable in Pakistan and the construction of a naval base and new rail lines in Balochistan would meet those needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sparsely populated province of Balochistan on the border with Iran and Afghanistan has now taken center-stage in China\u2019s growing relationship with Pakistan and the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor linking China\u2019s western city of Kashgar with Balochistan\u2019s Gwadar Port nestled 3,000 kilometers away on the Arabian Sea,\u201d notes\u00a0a September 2017\u00a0report from the Howard Baker Center,\u00a0a nonpartisan public policy\u00a0center, located on the campus of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.<\/p>\n

China is also reportedly building a military base in Pakistan’s\u00a0Jiwani peninsula, which is near Gwadar and close to the border with Iran. The construction of a base would require local residents be displaced to make room for a security zone.<\/p>\n

China opened its first offshore naval base last year in Djibouti, a small French and Arabic speaking country on the Horn of Africa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, Jan. 5 (TNS): As the Trump administration announced plans to cut all security funding to Pakistan, Beijing revealed\u00a0it would build an offshore naval base near a strategic Pakistani port, US media reported on Friday. The naval base will be located in the Gwadar port in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, reports Newsweek. Chinese military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,303],"tags":[932,304],"class_list":["post-42237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-washington","tag-international","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42239,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42237\/revisions\/42239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}