In rising Asia, China-Pakistan relations grow closer
Dan Steinbock says their partnership is as much economic as strategic
Our friendship is higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the deepest sea in the world, and sweeter than honey," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang , at the start of their recent meeting in Beijing.
Sharif's visit anticipates a shift in Pakistan's economic and foreign policies. In Islamabad, China is today seen as a regional counterweight to Washington and Nato. Beijing supports Islamabad's position on Kashmir, while Pakistan supports China on the issues of Xinjiang , Tibet and Taiwan.
Economic co-operation has accelerated with a free-trade agreement and China's assistance in the development of Pakistan's infrastructure. In 2012, two-way trade exceeded US$12 billion.
Nevertheless, Beijing's recalibration is not just a response to the Obama pivot
Last year, China purchased more than half of its oil from the Middle East. China is also the largest investor in Pakistan's deep-water port at Gwadar, located at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. In the long term, the two nations hope to connect Kashgar in western China to Gwadar. Some 60 per cent of China's oil comes from the Gulf by ships travelling over 16,000 kilometres in two to three months, but Gwadar could reduce the distance to 2,500 kilometres.
Typically, the US and India see Gwadar less as economic and more in strategic terms - as a key part of the alleged Chinese strategic ambition to project its power into the Indian Ocean. While the project could prove a "game changer" for both Pakistan and China, the route will run through Baluchistan province, where gas and mineral projects have already sparked insurgencies.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is expected to rejuvenate the economy, improve security, contain the jihadist attacks and bring an end to US drone strikes. However, Sharif's overriding focus will be on economic development.
After the global recession in 2008-09, real gross domestic product growth has averaged only 3 per cent annually, which is insufficient to achieve substantial improvements in living standards and absorb the rising labour force.