By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The Gwadar deep sea port will only reach its full potential if there is peace and stability in the region, Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani told a meeting here on Wednesday evening.
Addressing the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Durrani said with the network of modern highways being built interlinking the region, Pakistan will become a trade and energy corridor bringing development and prosperity to not only the central Asia republics, but also to Iran, Afghanistan and India
He could foresee a future where Indian goods will go Afghanistan and all the way beyond through Pakistan and Iranian gas could flow to India through Pakistan. The potential of the project could be
gleaned from the fact that the Singapore Port Authority had signed on to manage Gwadar for the next 40 years.
Pasni: The next port to be developed by Pakistan, he added, would be Pasni, which would bring the number of the country’s outlets to sea to four. He said Gwadar would be solely put to trade and energy, not military, uses. During the question-answer period, a former US ambassador and author, Dennis Kux, recalled that as long ago as the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, the United States had shown an interest in the development of the Gwadar port but matters had not gone beyond that. In 1973 when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came to Washington, he offered Gwadar as a naval facility to President Nixon, who after consideration, said no because he did not believe it was a viable project and, secondly, he was afraid that it would worsen Washington’s already bad relations with India.
The ambassador said Gwadar should be viewed as a gateway for commerce and transportation link in South Asia, the energy-rich but landlocked Central Asia, China and the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf
WASHINGTON: The Gwadar deep sea port will only reach its full potential if there is peace and stability in the region, Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani told a meeting here on Wednesday evening.
Addressing the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Durrani said with the network of modern highways being built interlinking the region, Pakistan will become a trade and energy corridor bringing development and prosperity to not only the central Asia republics, but also to Iran, Afghanistan and India
He could foresee a future where Indian goods will go Afghanistan and all the way beyond through Pakistan and Iranian gas could flow to India through Pakistan. The potential of the project could be
gleaned from the fact that the Singapore Port Authority had signed on to manage Gwadar for the next 40 years.
Pasni: The next port to be developed by Pakistan, he added, would be Pasni, which would bring the number of the country’s outlets to sea to four. He said Gwadar would be solely put to trade and energy, not military, uses. During the question-answer period, a former US ambassador and author, Dennis Kux, recalled that as long ago as the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, the United States had shown an interest in the development of the Gwadar port but matters had not gone beyond that. In 1973 when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came to Washington, he offered Gwadar as a naval facility to President Nixon, who after consideration, said no because he did not believe it was a viable project and, secondly, he was afraid that it would worsen Washington’s already bad relations with India.
The ambassador said Gwadar should be viewed as a gateway for commerce and transportation link in South Asia, the energy-rich but landlocked Central Asia, China and the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf
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