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Iran's Chabahar vs Pakistan's Gwadar
Chabahar port in Iran is only about 100 miles from Gwadar port in Pakistan. Both are natural deep sea ports in the Arabian sea.
Gwadar port's planned capacity when it is completed will be 300 to 400 million tons of cargo annually. It is comparable to the capacity of all of India's ports combined annual capacity of 500 million tons of cargo today. It is far larger than the 10-12 million tons cargo handling capacity planned for Chabahar.
To put Gwadar's scale in perspective, let's compare it with the largest US port of Long Beach which handles 80 million tons of cargo, about a quarter of what Gwadar will handle upon completion of the project. Gawadar port will be capable of handling the world's largest container ships and massive oil tankers.
Gawadar port is being built in Pakistan by the Chinese as part of the ambitious $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that will eventually serve as Hong Kong West for growing Chinese trade with the Middle East and Europe. CPEC will also enable Pakistan to bypass Afghanistan to trade with Central Asia through China across China's borders with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Chabahar is ostensibly an Indian effort to build a port in Iran to bypass Pakistan for India's trade with landlocked Afghanistan and other Central Asian states. Prime Minister Modi has committed $500 million investment in Chabahar, a tiny fraction of the Chinese commitment for Gwadar. A trilateral agreement was recently signed in Tehran by Indian Prime Minister Modi, Iranian President Rouhani and Afghan President Ghani.
Trade with Afghanistan through Afghan-Iran border in the West will probably remain a pipe dream given that 1) most of Afghan population lives in east and south close to the border with Pakistan and 2) Afghanistan has very poor infrastructure making it very difficult to move cargo across land from west to east and south of the country.
Pakistan suspects that India's real objective in Iran is to locate its intelligence agents under the cover of Chabahar port construction workers to sabotage China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and support Baloch insurgency to destabilize Pakistan. These suspicions were strengthened when Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav, operating under the fake name Husain Mubarak Patel, was arrested in Balochistan in March this year. Yadav confessed he was operating as an undercover RAW agent from his base in Chabahar, Iran.
If Iran does nothing to stop Indian covert activities from its soil against Pakistan, Iran-Pakistan relations could suffer irreparable harm. Efforts to sabotage CPEC will not please China either, and the Chinese are far more important to Iran as trading partners than India. This should give pause to hardline anti-Pakistan sectarian elements in Tehran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsYDpMY35U8
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Gwadar as Hong Kong West
China-Pakistan Industrial Corridor
Indian Spy Kulbhushan Yadav's Confession
Ex Indian Spy Documents RAW Successes Against Pakistan
Saleem Safi of GeoTV on Gwadar
Pakistan FDI Soaring with Chinese Money for CPEC
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| Gwadar Extends into Deep Sea with East & West Bays |
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| Eastern Half of Gwadar Port |
Gwadar port's planned capacity when it is completed will be 300 to 400 million tons of cargo annually. It is comparable to the capacity of all of India's ports combined annual capacity of 500 million tons of cargo today. It is far larger than the 10-12 million tons cargo handling capacity planned for Chabahar.
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| Completed Gwadar Berths & Cranes |
To put Gwadar's scale in perspective, let's compare it with the largest US port of Long Beach which handles 80 million tons of cargo, about a quarter of what Gwadar will handle upon completion of the project. Gawadar port will be capable of handling the world's largest container ships and massive oil tankers.
Gawadar port is being built in Pakistan by the Chinese as part of the ambitious $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that will eventually serve as Hong Kong West for growing Chinese trade with the Middle East and Europe. CPEC will also enable Pakistan to bypass Afghanistan to trade with Central Asia through China across China's borders with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
 |
| Gwadar Port Authority Building |
Chabahar is ostensibly an Indian effort to build a port in Iran to bypass Pakistan for India's trade with landlocked Afghanistan and other Central Asian states. Prime Minister Modi has committed $500 million investment in Chabahar, a tiny fraction of the Chinese commitment for Gwadar. A trilateral agreement was recently signed in Tehran by Indian Prime Minister Modi, Iranian President Rouhani and Afghan President Ghani.
Trade with Afghanistan through Afghan-Iran border in the West will probably remain a pipe dream given that 1) most of Afghan population lives in east and south close to the border with Pakistan and 2) Afghanistan has very poor infrastructure making it very difficult to move cargo across land from west to east and south of the country.
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| Big Chinese Ship Docked at Gwadar |
Pakistan suspects that India's real objective in Iran is to locate its intelligence agents under the cover of Chabahar port construction workers to sabotage China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and support Baloch insurgency to destabilize Pakistan. These suspicions were strengthened when Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav, operating under the fake name Husain Mubarak Patel, was arrested in Balochistan in March this year. Yadav confessed he was operating as an undercover RAW agent from his base in Chabahar, Iran.
If Iran does nothing to stop Indian covert activities from its soil against Pakistan, Iran-Pakistan relations could suffer irreparable harm. Efforts to sabotage CPEC will not please China either, and the Chinese are far more important to Iran as trading partners than India. This should give pause to hardline anti-Pakistan sectarian elements in Tehran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsYDpMY35U8
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Gwadar as Hong Kong West
China-Pakistan Industrial Corridor
Indian Spy Kulbhushan Yadav's Confession
Ex Indian Spy Documents RAW Successes Against Pakistan
Saleem Safi of GeoTV on Gwadar
Pakistan FDI Soaring with Chinese Money for CPEC
Riaz Haq
Pakistan's largest airport becomes operational, part of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative | AP News
https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-china-funded-gwadar-airport-bal...
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s largest airport, funded and built in the country’s restive southwest by Beijin g, has become operational, officials said Monday.
Gwadar airport is in the province of Balochistan, which has for decades been the scene of an insurgency by separatists demanding autonomy or outright independence.
Pakistani Defense Minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, and Chinese officials were among those attending a ceremony at Gwadar airport and watched the arrival of the Pakistan International Airlines inaugural flight from the southern city of Karachi.
The ceremony came months after Chinese Premier Li Qiang and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif virtually inaugurated the airport, which has a capacity of handling 400,000 travelers annually.
Beijing has invested heavily in the coastal city of Gwadar. Besides the airport, which has an estimated cost of $230 million, China has also constructed a deep seaport as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative to increase trade by building infrastructure around the world. This aims to also give Beijing direct access to the shipping lanes of the Arabian Sea through Pakistan via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Work started on Gwadar airport in 2019. It was supposed to be operational last year but was delayed after a surge in attacks by militants and separatists on Chinese nationals working on projects in the province.
In televised remarks, Asif thanked China for building the airport and said the airport would play a key role in improving the country’s economy, attracting international investment and bringing prosperity to Balochistan.
Ethnic Baloch, who accuse the Chinese and others of economic exploitation, oppose the project and other Chinese initiatives in the province.
The Ministry of Planning and Development stated that the airport can handle a combination of ATR 72, Airbus, (A-300), Boeing (B-737), and Boeing (B-747) for domestic and international routes.
Gwadar airport is the country’s largest in terms of area, spread over 4,300 acres of land, according to Pakistan’s civil aviation.
Jan 20
Riaz Haq
Trade volume handled by Pakistani ports in FY 2025:
Karachi Port: 54 million tons
Port Qasim: 34 million tons
Gwadar Port: 500,000 tons
Total Cargo all ports: 88.5 million tons
Pakistan’s biggest port hits record 54 million tons in FY25, boosting trade prospects
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2606658/pakistan
Karachi Port Trust says witnessed cargo handling growth of 4.45 percent in FY25 compared to fiscal year 2023-24
Port handled 1,093 container ships, 218 bulk carriers and 452 liquid bulk ship tankers in last fiscal year
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Partial data: From July 2024 to March 2025, Port Qasim Authority handled 33.8 million tonnes of cargo. This represents a 1.6% decrease compared to the previous year.
Daily figures: For various dates in 2025, there are records of daily cargo volumes handled at the port.
Contextual information:
Karachi Port, another major Pakistani port, recorded a total handling of 54 million tons in FY25.
Jul 4
Riaz Haq
Pakistan seeks $2 billion Chinese funding for CPEC
The federal government has finalised the agenda for the upcoming Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting with China, seeking financing of over $2 billion for major infrastructure projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2566723/pakistan-seeks-2-billion-chine...
According to sources, the agenda includes the Karakoram Highway (KKH) Phase II, the Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project, and the East Bay Expressway.
Pakistan has requested $1.5 billion in financing for KKH Phase II and the East Bay Expressway, while an additional $500 million has been proposed for the Rohri-Multan section of the ML-1 track.
The realignment of KKH Phase II alone is estimated to cost around Rs500 billion, while the 14-kilometre East Bay Expressway is projected to require over Rs30 billion.
Sources added that China will cover 85 per cent of the expenses for both the KKH Phase II and the East Bay Expressway projects.
yesterday