Geopolitical Analysis

By K.N. Pandita

With the turn of the century, India stumbled on the ambitious concept of “Look East” … a phrase variously interpreted and mostly ascribed to her eastward expansion of trade and business enterprises.

Unrelenting hostility of her immediate western neighbour, raging conflict in Afghanistan and escalating anti-American and anti-Arab acrimony of Iranian hardliner regime are among factors driving India to find new markets and land and sea roots to her east.

But “Looking East” being easier said than done, India had perforce, to reckon with far more pragmatic and workable international relations policy of the Asiatic giant straddling across other continents besides Asia, of course.

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The Great Oil Game: A New Phase

by K.N. Pandita

Pakistan will be investing about seven billion US dollars in next eight years to improve road and rail infrastructure and create a network that links China and the South Asian countries to the Gawadar port on Mekran coast by 2014.

The up coming oil mega-city on the shoreline of Baluchistan has two components viz. the petrochemical city and the biggest refinery with storage complexes and warehouses in the region.

When the project of developing Gawadar as a deep-sea port was undertaken in 2004, Beijing provided 80 per cent of 248 million US Dollars as the initial development cost of the port. Sino-Pak planners expect the port to initially generate revenue of 23.6 billion US dollars, with a capacity to reach 42.2 billion.

On February 8, 2007, Port of Singapore Authority (SPA) signed an agreement with Gawadar Port Authority (GPA) and the Concession Holding Company (CHC), a subsidiary of PSA. Close to the Strait of Hormuz, Gawadar deep-sea port is likely to be at the convergence of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

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