CHINA HOPING FOR STRATEGIC DIVIDENDS
By growing its strategic footprint in the Indian Ocean, China also expands maritime routes for its energy supplies. Eighty per cent of China’s oil has to pass through the Strait of Malacca – a narrow waterway between Indonesia and Malaysia that lies east of the Indian Ocean.
Chinese-run Gwadar Port on Pakistan’s southwest coast could be China’s trump card in securing its interests in the Indian Ocean. Strategically located near the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane, Gwadar Port allows China to bypass any potential blockade in the Strait of Malacca through the Arabian Sea.
China is simultaneously strengthening Pakistan’s naval muscle and developing the country’s Gwadar Port. Critics see these steps as China’s long-term investments that would pay strategic dividends in future.
The US Pentagon has identified Gwadar as a possible location for a future Chinese military base. With a naval presence in Gwadar, China could conduct regular patrols in the Arabian Sea.
China’s longstanding strategic relationship with Pakistan poses new challenges to competitors in the race for dominance over the Indian Ocean.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider is a contributing analyst at the South Asia desk of Wikistrat.
