Pakistan moving closer to China: US Congress

WASHINGTON: With deepening of India-US relationship and deterioration in the ties between Washington and Islamabad, Pakistan is moving closer to China, a Congressional report has said.

"As US-India ties deepen and US-Pakistan ties appear to deteriorate, many observers see Islamabad becoming more reliant than ever on its friendship with Beijing," said the latest report on Pakistan by the independent Congressional Research Service (CRS).

"US-Pakistan acrimony in the wake of OBL's death appears to have increased Pakistan's reliance on China as a key international ally.

"Pakistani leaders have become notably more and perhaps overly effusive in their expressions of closeness with China in 2011," it said.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's visit to China in May elicited no major new embrace from Beijing, but the Chinese government did insist that the West "must respect" Pakistan's sovereignty, the report said.

China also agreed to expedite delivery to Pakistan of 50 JF-17 fighter jets equipped with upgraded avionics (Islamabad is also negotiating with Beijing for the purchase of six new submarines for as much as USD 3 billion in what would be the largest-ever bilateral defense purchase.

"The Islamabad government suffered some embarrassment when its defense minister, upon returning from the same trip, claimed that the Chinese would assume control of the deep-water port at Gwadar that it had helped to build and, further, that Beijing would convert the port for military use," the CRS said adding that the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed having no knowledge of the purported plans.