The new great game

Chabahar port tripartite agreement has been inked by Afghanistan, Iran and china to develop strategically vital port. India is eyeing to target central Asia by passing Pakistan. Afghanistan being a landlocked country will benefit from this project manifolds as it grants them access to Indian ocean and onward to transport the goods again by passing Pakistan due to fragile relations the two neighbor countries enjoys. Iran get all the goodies from this project. Indians also think this project will ultimately enable them to influence Afghanistan and ultimately the central Asia.

The real question is will chabahar port rival Gwadar port?

The answer lies in many interesting ground realities which ultimately signals in negative.  Chabahar may provide three countries the corridor but India only get to transport good through this region to central Asia with only 50 million population. China is already leading the market there along with Russia because its goods are cheaper and less expensively transported to these regions. So Indian goods will have to be transported twice its price to those areas through Chabahar into Afghanistan and ultimately central Asia. Chinese competition may prove way too much.

 Gwadar is part of first step in China's vision of one road-one belt. The access to Gwadar will make Chinese powers of two oceans. USA will play a major player in this region and continue to do so for foreseeable future. Chinese prudently offered USA a stake in this project so as to minimize their animosity because they want to lessen the Chinese dominance. Although USA is favoring such move on papers but alternatively working with India and japan to counter Sino-Russian dominance in the region. 

Pakistan must work out plans to curb violence and insecurity inside the country and foreign threats to CPEC and ensure Chinese workers safety. For this purpose Pakistan has made a full battalion consisting of 8 brigades. For this  purpose 250 million dollars have already been sanctioned. 

CPEC is the answer to all the insecurities we have in the region and the stability of our country. Chinese are also interested to develope pakistan's social and economic structure to increase capacity building for this utmost important trade route. 

This is the new great game in the region and we must be vigilant enough to foresee problems and chalk out solutions for them.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/news/1264242/the-new-great-game