Published May 13th, 2006 by Future Atlas
Pakistan’s aspirations
Der Spiegel examines Pakistan’s aspirations, saying that Musharraf
wants to fundamentally reposition Pakistan in South Asia and turn his country into a dominant regional power — a political and economic hub strategically positioned amongst India, China, Iran and the central Asian countries. To achieve his goals, Musharraf is looking for new allies. American priorities have essentially dominated Pakistan’s policies since the attacks of September 11, 2001. But instead of limiting himself to his current alliance with the United States and its “war on terror,” Musharraf is also reaching out to China, the superpower of the future.
But troubles in Baluchistan are potential obstacles:
Pakistan’s internal conflicts could soon attain international significance, if a plan to run South Asia’s two most important gas pipelines through Baluchistan in a few years comes to fruition. The agreement for the construction of the pipeline from Turkmenistan to the Arabian Sea, which would take it through both strife-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan, has already been signed. Negotiations are currently underway for a network linking Iran, India and Pakistan.
The Baluchi troubles directly interfere with the Gwadar port project:
The new Gwadar is already seen as strategically important today. At the site 80 kilometers (50 miles) east if the Iranian border, the Pakistanis are building a giant port which, unlike Karachi, would hardly be vulnerable to a naval blockade by archenemy India. The Chinese, for their part, want to use Gwadar as a base from which to keep an eye on the Americans in the Persian Gulf and the Indians in the Arabian Sea and, of course, to monitor both countries’ movements in the Indian Ocean. That’s why Washington and New Delhi view the cooperative venture between China and Pakistan as a serious provocation.