Security is priority

Aamir Khaan

Significance of Gwadar port can never be neglected, it is same important for China as it is for Pakistan.
China Pakistan Economic Corridor can bring a revolution in the economic condition and can increase the
trade rate of China. Pakistan will take benefits because the route is crossing through different cities of
Pakistan.

According to the document available online nine major cities of Pakistan will be included in project;
those are kunjrab, Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Sukkar, Quetta, Karachi and Gwadar, those
cities will be direct conneted to Kashgar and Taxkorgan in China.

Gwadar is situated between the gulf, Central Asia and South West Asia, more than one third of the
world’s oil passes through this way. The CPEC project has a number of development plans like airport,
for which 4,300 acres of land has been allocated. $10 billion to TAPI gas pipeline which will enable the
export of natural gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India from Turkmenistan. Karachi motorway, railway
track, housing and multi-use development projects are the part of plan and will be an obvious step
towards economic development for both of the countries. As the project will take place as one built one
road and will connect China to Europe.

Now if it is asked that: Is economic development the only purpose of CPEC? Why China is using Pakistan
for this route? Why China is not making the route through Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Iran, Turkey and leads
to Europe?

The answer is “Security”. This argument will be strong if we have a look towards the current route of
trade for China. The route starts from China to Kuala lumpur, Malaysia through south China sea, then
next point is Jakarta, Indonesia which leads the ships to Colombo, Sri lanka through the strait of
Malacca, then Kolkata, Narobi and the way to Europe through red sea.

The Strait of Malacca is the second world largest chokepoint after Hormuz and estimated that 15.2
million barrels of oil per day passes through this strait, according to U.S EIA.

The Strait of Malacca is the biggest ship’s threat to China as it is under the influence of U.S and if it is
blocked then China will face a bad lost in trading. So China needs a secure and alternate route for
trading.

On one side the Strait of Malacca is a security threat to china’s trading route and on the other side
Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan is still under the influence of Russia. China cannot trust in these countries and
will never take a risk.
Portraying the Pak-China friendship the project of CPEC has been started in Pakistan which will connect
Kashgar to Gwadar with a number of development projects. Now another question: Did Pakistan
allowed CPEC for Economic development?

The answer will be; the economic development is secondary, the primary reason of making this route
and including Gwadar is security. Recent there is only one trade route by sea specially the oil supply
route and that is Karachi port. If we got any conflict with India, Karachi is nearer to it, they need round
about seven minutes to reach and block the port of Karachi which is called to be the gate way of
Pakistan.

Pakistan also needed an alternate and secure route for trade and Gwadar is more suitable port as it has
the advantage of deep water and also it is far from the reach of India.

Economy will be developed if it is secured, every country’s first priority is security, then development.