China plans to boost naval ties with Pakistan. How will India respond?
- Chinese and Pakistani navies should ‘expand into new fields of cooperation’, Defence Minister Li Shangfu tells Pakistan’s chief of naval staff
- Move seen as likely to irk India, which opposes any military aid to Pakistan and is vying with China for regional influence
The assessment came as Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu told the Pakistani chief of naval staff that their navies should “expand into new fields of cooperation” to boost their capacity to safeguard regional security.
Meeting Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi in Beijing on Monday, Li said the relationship between their militaries was an important part of bilateral ties.
“The militaries of the two countries should expand new exchange areas, create new cooperation highlights, and work together to safeguard the security interests of both countries and the region,” Li told Niazi, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Niazi said the Pakistan Navy was willing to establish closer cooperation with its Chinese counterpart, and jointly safeguard regional security and stability.
Days earlier, Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of the Chinese Central Military Commission and the country’s highest-ranking serviceman, said China was willing to deepen and expand cooperation with the Pakistani military.
Timothy Heath, a senior analyst from the US think tank Rand Corporation, said a key source of cooperation would be arms sales.
“China views Pakistan as a critical partner for ensuring security along Indian Ocean shipping routes. Beijing is accordingly eager to help modernise Pakistan’s military through arms sales and military training and exchanges. Pakistan in turn seeks to modernise its navy, in part to deter India,” Heath said.
“Closer cooperation to promote the modernisation of the Pakistani navy will also enable the [Chinese] navy to increase its presence along the Indian Ocean and expand its access to key ports such as that at Gwadar [in Pakistan] … [Such] naval cooperation will also help China more effectively contain India.”
Long Xingchun, president of the Chengdu Institute of World Affairs, a think tank in China’s Sichuan province, said naval cooperation between China and Pakistan would not directly affect India but was sure to make New Delhi uneasy.
“Though China will enhance cooperation with the Pakistani navy, Beijing wouldn’t support any military confrontation between India and Pakistan, and the enhanced naval cooperation between China and Pakistan won’t help China to deter India on their border dispute, as these disputes happen on land not at sea,” Long said.
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“However, India is against any country seeking military cooperation with Pakistan and has persistently opposed all arms supplies to it, whether from the United States or Russia. And it is expected that India will express dissatisfaction and opposition after Beijing enhances naval cooperation with Pakistan.”
“China and Pakistan are good friends, good partners and good brothers,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif when they met in Beijing last year.
“Amid global changes and instability in recent years, the two countries have supported each other and forged ahead, demonstrating an ironclad friendship.”
