Author: Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri
Publication: The Newspaper Today
Date: May 21, 2001
With the tacit decision to station
a Chinese Naval fleet in the waters of Baluchistan, near Gawadar Port,
Beijing had won what Russian aggression and United States manoeuvering
had failed to do over the last many decades.
Gawadar deep-sea port enjoys a unique
strategic significance. It is situated at the western end of Baluchistan,
and is formed by a natural headland connected to the mainland by a sandspit.
At the strategic hub of Strait of Hormuz and on the mouth of Persian Gulf,
it is Pakistan's second Naval outlet after the Karachi Port.
The covert understanding was reached
during the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to Pakistan. It had
opened a new vista in the Pak-China relationship.
It all went galvanizing in the spectrum
of the United States President's announcement of National Missile Defence
(NMD) strategy and Washington's cold shoulder to Islamabad.
Both Pakistan and China seized the
opportunity and in principle it was decided to set the ball rolling in
the region by not only countering the US hegmonistic designs in Asia but
also check the emerging Indo-US nexus. The visit of Premier Zhu Rongji
to Pakistan brought to fore a number of understandings in the defence and
economic horizons.
Sources in the Ministry of Defence
said Pakistan had blessed the Chinese with the honour of building the Gawadar
deep sea port as well as upgrading its naval installations in Omara Naval
Base in order to keep a vigilant eye on the Arabian Sea as well as the
Gulf.
"The decision is a landmark," says
a Foreign Office official manning Chinese affairs, "as it a tactical deterrent
to the mighty Indian Naval establishment in the Arabian Sea and the Indian
Ocean."
A source at the Karachi Naval Dockyard
said the "Chinese arm" will make the difference felt for the Indians "busy
in intimidating Pakistan under one pretext or the other."
Zhu Rongji's visit to Pakistan had
a tantalizing piquancy. It was a right signal at a complexed moment of
diplomacy. As the US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was busy
convincing New Delhi of the virtues of George W. Bush's NMD and Star Wars
doctrine, Zhu has been writing history in Pakistan.
Zhu's list of gestures were marvellous:
A firm diplomatic and military support against aggression over Islamabad,
"yes" to upgradation of Pakistan's missile and nuclear programme as well
as a generous contribution to its economic upliftment.
Foreign Office officials lament
over the aspect that the US "ignored" Pakistan while its envoy was on a
diplomatic spree to explain his government's newly-announced NMD doctrine.
"It speaks of Washington's arrogant attitude and a partisan approach towards
a Muslim nuclear power," says a research fellow at the Institute of Policy
Studies, Islamabad.
But a source in the Army's General
Headquarters (GHQ) was quick to add: "China card is more than enough to
perplex the American and Indian designs against Pakistan." And the US did
this despite the fact that the International Institute of Strategic Studies,
London, in its recent report said: "Although India's nuclear infrastructure
and financial means are far greater, Pakistan's military programme, especially
the nuclear and missile ones, have first call on available resources."
With Zhu's visit Chinese are back
in business in Pakistan. They have been assigned the task to build Gawadar
deep sea port and the 653 km long Makran coastal highway from Karachi to
Gawadar - a project that would cost around $1.6 billion. Other than building
the port, the Chinese have also been entrusted with the responsibility
to unearth Pakistan's largest mineral deposits in Saindak. And that was
not the end of Zhu's visit: He had promised Pakistan with a soft loan of
one billion dollars to help finance its dwindling sectors of railways and
communications.
An official at the Ministry of Finance
noted that the Chinese generosity is a "slap" on the face of IMF and World
Bank who hoodwink as much as they could before funneling Pakistan with
their piecemeal assistance. But then there is no dearth of "conspiracy"
theorists in Pakistan's establishment, too. They say that Zhu's visit turned
out to be the "most ill-timed" for Pakistan's foreign policy front.
They point out that with NMD out
of bag, it was time for Pakistan to bargain with Washington as the Indians
tactfully did. Other than a spontaneous Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh's
policy statement to support Bush's NMD, sooner than later it was announced,
the Indians set out to bargain the best in their national interest. And
that included "undoing of US imposed sanctions, joining of nuclear club,
permanent seat at the UN Security Council, and a 'preferred' state status
in trade and development."
Though New Delhi went "out of way"
with US on a ride, yet it was very much in the Russian lap, analysts point
out in Pakistan. And that is what Pakistan needed to do by "flirting" along
with the US while maintaining a firm Chinese posture.
Sources in the policy-making circles
regret that Islamabad and its diplomatic corps in Washington failed to
study the mood of the Bush administration while they moved towards the
Indians. But Foreign Office rebuffs the allegation and says that the "Chinese
stepping in at the right moment saved Islamabad from being declared a rogue
state by the US."
Hardly had Zhu's visit to Pakistan
concluded, the US State Department came out with a categorical assurance
that Pakistan is not among the list of Bush's "rogue states."
And this had an element of joy for
the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf. Sources in the government
say that the US decision "must have perplexed Prime Minister Vajpayee and
his administration that jumped into the bandwagon of Bush's NMD anticipating
isolation of Pakistan militarily and diplomatically."
Other than diplomatic, economic
and military lifeline, the Chinese premier also brought with him what the
regime of General Musharraf desired the most: political support. Zhu went
out of way to pronounce that Musharraf's "coup had brought Pakistan out
of mess."
Many in the Army term it as a feather
in Musharraf's cap and proudly point out that with Myanmar, Vietnam and
China behind Islamabad, US-India axis has been put to test.
(The writer is a journalist with
The Dawn, Karachi)
