News / Pakistan / China / Editor's Choice

China never asked for military access to Pakistani Gwadar port: Navy general

Friday, 26 October 2018 9:31 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 26 October 2018 10:32 AM ]

A general view of Gwadar port in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, October 4, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

A Pakistani senior military official says China has never asked for military access to the port of Gwadar on Pakistan's south coast, which the United States alleged that could be a likely future foreign military base for China.

Navy Secretary of the Pakistan Navy, Rear Admiral Javaid Iqbal, said at a forum in the Chinese capital, Beijing, that the Gwadar port, located in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, is a “significant addition to the regional maritime landscape.”

“Let me emphasize that the Gwadar port is purely a commercial venture and has no military overtones,” he told the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing on Friday.

“The Gwadar port will be just a commercial port," he said. "The Pakistan navy will maintain a presence to ensure maritime security, to ensure the security of the port."

“Suitably located outside the potentially risky and confined waters of the Gulf, Gwadar has the potential to act not only as a transit port for China and Central Asia but also a trans shipment port impacting the prosperity of the entire region,” he explained.

Asked whether China had specifically asked for military access, the admiral said, "No, not at all.”

“The geopolitical debate that somehow goes on in the media about Gwadar being used as a foreign military base is not correct at all.” he later said.

China launched a project on the Pakistani port under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) back in 2015, to connect Gwadar to China’s Xinjiang via a vast network of highways and railways.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project, which is also known as the “new Silk Road” in 2013.

The trade infrastructure project envisions the construction of railways, roads and ports across the globe to connect China by land and sea to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk