Part I argued that India’s rise and its intensifying strategic competition with China are important reasons for Beijing to maintain its “all-weather friendship” with Pakistan. Yet these factors, significant as they are, do not fully explain the remarkable durability of the China-Pakistan partnership. There is a deeper and more enduring factor at work: Geography.

Geography provides another, and perhaps even more compelling, answer.

It is geography that places Pakistan at the intersection of South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, making it relevant not merely to China’s India policy but to Beijing’s broader regional and global ambitions.

No alternative route offers China quite the same combination of geographical proximity, strategic depth and access to the Arabian Sea.

No alternative route offers China quite the same combination of geographical proximity, strategic depth and access to the Arabian Sea.

China’s industrial heartland lies thousands of kilometres from the Middle East. Much of its imported energy passes through vulnerable maritime chokepoints, particularly the Strait of Malacca.

Pakistan offers China something few countries can: direct access to the Arabian Sea. Gwadar Port, together with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), provides Beijing with a strategic outlet toward the Indian Ocean and the Gulf region.

CPEC has encountered delays, financing difficulties, security problems and criticism from within Pakistan. Yet neither Beijing nor Islamabad has........

© Daily Times