New | China to support Pakistan to ensure security of new economic zone, says Chinese general

Beijing will back Pakistan to ensure the security of a new economic corridor granting access to the port of Gwadar that aims to create direct links between China and the Arabian Sea, a top general has pledged.

Central Military Commission vice-chairman Fan Changlong told Pakistan's army head Raheel Sharif on Thursday that Beijing looked forward to close cooperation "to ensure proper management and security of CPEC", according to a Pakistani military statement.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is an ambitious US$46 billion project giving Beijing greater access to the Middle East, Africa and Europe through Pakistan, via a highway to Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.

Fan's visit, the first by a Chinese general of his seniority in more than a decade, came two days after Pakistan handed hundreds of hectares of land over to China for the development of a free-trade zone in Gwadar as part of the project.

The development is part of China's ambition to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia while countering American and Indian influence. India has expressed wariness about the project in the past, though analysts recently said concerns would arise only if there were "defence-related matters".