Pakistan Navy gets Advanced Warship from China
Pakistan had signing a contract with the China Shipbuilding Trading Company Ltd. (CSTC) for the delivery of two Type-054 A/P frigates in 2017.
By IAR Desk
The Pakistan Navy has inducted an Advanced Warship which was launched by China.
Pakistan-China defence ties have reached new heights with the launch of the first ship of Type-054 class frigate, as reported by Pakistan’s state-run APP news agency.
China has launched the first of the four advanced naval warships it is building for Pakistan, amid deepening defence ties between the two “all-weather” allies. The launching ceremony was held at the Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai on Sunday.
Pakistan’s chief naval overseer in China, Commodore Azfar Humayun, and China Shipbuilding Trading (CSTC) chairman Mr. Li Hongtao attended the ceremony.
“The Type-054 class, fitted with latest surface, subsurface, anti-air weapons, combat management system and sensors will be one of the technologically advanced surface platforms of Pakistan Navy fleet,” the Pakistani navy said in a statement announcing the induction.
Pakistan had signing a contract with the China Shipbuilding Trading Company Ltd. (CSTC) for the delivery of two Type-054 A/P frigates in 2017.
Last year, the Chinese official media reported that under a major arms deal between the two countries, China would build four advanced frigates for the Pakistan Navy. However, the terms of the deal and the price of the ships were not revealed.
The launching of the ship came on the heels of the 2nd strategic dialogue that happened between the Foreign Minister of China,Wang Yi and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi that was held at the Chinese holiday resort of Hainan on the 21st of August.
Qureshi said on Monday that China and Pakistan were strategic partners, always. He also said that the cooperative relationship between Pakistan and China was an answer to all the objections raised regarding the ambitious USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Answering and addressing the media on his way back from China, Qureshi said Pakistan and China were pursuing the project and its pace of implementation would exponentially shoot up and it would be benefitting the entire region.
The CPEC, which actually connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province is originally the flagship project of China’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The BRI was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes. It is often seen and assumed as an attempt by China to further its influence abroad with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the globe.
Originally valued at USD 46 billion, the projects were worth USD 62 billion as of 2017, leading to criticism of the project inside Pakistan. Many PaliPakis economists and analysts believe that the project is unviable and is leading Pakistan to a debt-trap.
The project has also run to nto trouble elsewhere. Groups inside Pakistan’s territory through which it runs, like Balochistan, have mounted protests, alleging that it was impoverishing the region and it’s people. Dissident groups have even mounted armed attacks on it and against Chinese representatives.
On the other hand India has expressed serious reservations about the BRI, alleging that the CPEC was passing illegally through disputed territory of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan provinces.
