No military bases offered to China in Gwadar: Pak NSA

Karachi, December 9

Pakistan has not offered any military bases to China in the strategic Gwadar port, National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf has said, while reiterating that any country can invest in the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project since “we are not closed to anybody.”

The Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea has long been portrayed as the jewel in the CPEC crown, but in the process, the city has become the very embodiment of a security state in the restive Balochistan province. “There are economic bases of China in Pakistan, where any country in the world can invest…the same were also offered to the United States, Russia and the Middle East. We are open to all countries,” Yusuf said in an interview for BBC’s HARDtalk.

Protests had erupted in Gwadar last month against unnecessary checkpoints, severe shortage of water and electricity and threats to livelihoods from illegal fishing. The protests were part of growing discontent over China’s presence in Gwadar, whose port is an integral part of the $60 billion CPEC, the flagship project of China’s multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative. — PTI

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