Premier Li Keqiang has said “the tree of China-Pakistan friendship” was planted decades ago, nurtured by successive leaders and “is now exuberant with abundant fruits.”
The two day visit, of the Chinese premier is being taken with an affirmative welcome from all sectors of the Pakistani society. It is also being taken as a positive sign that the Premier, in his first tour abroad, has made sure to re-assure the friendly ties between the two countries, even though an interim set-up is being run in the country. The Premier met the interim PM, the President and the expected PM, who is yet to take in office, in these two days.
In February, Beijing had signed a pact with Pakistan over the construction and development of the strategic port of Gwadar, which could connect China to the Arabian Sea and Strait of Hormuz – a gateway for a third of the world’s traded oil, if a road net is built from the Karakorum Highway to Gwader. This project is a long-pending dream of China, and it would only be essential for China to affirm this pact with the new set-up, in the fast changing global scenarios of the time. The Gwader project not only brings a promise of prosperity to the people of Baluchistan, but offers the whole nation of Pakistan a vibrant economy, competing in world trade, in the near future.
One could say that Gawader holds more gold than it shows, as it has the potential to convert the regional power-play in favour of Pakistan. Once China, long-time, tested and trusted ally of Pakistan, is in the Arabian Sea, the aspired naval hegemony of the US fleet and of their friends the Indians, would be crushed to rubble. The regional polarity may shift towards the Pak/China/Afghan nexus, potentially causing change in the flux of the geopolitics of our time.
The trade between the two countries was at a $12 billion figure last year, and is targeted to a $15 billion within the next two years. This is in contrast to $61 billion worth of trade between China and India, forecasted to grow to a $100 billion by 2015. Still, the situation doesn’t become better by an inch, for India, as in the Premier’s visit to India, 3 days ago, the question of ‘settling the long-running border disputes between the two countries’ overshadowed all talks of trade and pacts. The Ladakh issue echoed throughout the tour and PM Singh said that India and China had “agreed that our special representatives will meet soon to continue discussions seeking an early agreement on a framework for a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable boundary settlement”.
But things between China and Pakistan have been running on a different note; China has been working with Pakistan on two nuclear reactors, each with a capacity of 300 MW, at Chasma in the Punjab province; the JF-17 fighter jets, jointly produced by the two countries is another salient project; and Gwader will prove to be a crown for both the countries.
There are about 10,000 Chinese people and more than 120 Chinese companies in Pakistan, working on networking, infrastructure and energy projects. In the past providing security to these foreigners has been an issue for Pakistan, it is of prime importance that security and respect be ensured for our Chinese friends in the coming time. Pakistan also needs to assure China that its concerns over Uighur militants, living in northwest Pakistan, will be removed and for that reason, getting rid of the TTP menace is a prerequisite.
Pakistan has lost a lot in its past relations with powerful friends that have never hesitated to stab us on our backs; we have blistered our sovereignty and suffered irreparable damages on our economy and social structure in trying to win the illusive favors of our so-called friends. It is time for Pakistan to seek its own respect now in the community of nations and stretch its arm of friendship only to those who know how to respect us and who can deal with us on equality basis.
China’s gesture of arriving to a friend’s place with a bouquet of six JF-17 Thunder jets that escorted Premier Li’s plane upon entering into Pakistani airspace is a befitting way of giving the message of how friendships are kept and sustained with respect and honour.
May Pak-China Friendship Prevail!