No plan to build navel base at Gwadar

No plan to build navel base at Gwadar

Context

China on Tuesday counselled the “outside world” not to speculate on Beijing’s reported intent to open a naval base in Gwadar, the starting point of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

No Pak-China discussion

In Pakistan, the daily, Pakistan Today said that Beijing and Islamabad had no plans to build a Chinese naval base in coastal areas of Pakistan, and the matter had never been discussed between the two countries

• No request by Chinese to build a naval base: Pakistan Todayquoted a senior official at the Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that neither the Chinese government had made any such request (of building a naval base) to the government of Pakistan nor was there any plan being discussed between the two governments

Strategic Security Division

The official mentioned that the security of the Chinese nationals working on the CPEC projects, as well as the Chinese shipments going into the Arabian Sea, would solely be a responsibility of Pakistani law enforcing agencies, and, for the same purpose, a designated division — Strategic Security Division — had been raised.