Post Taliban attack on naval base, China won’t invest in new Pakistan port

BEIJING: China on Tuesday indicated that it would not invest in creating another naval base in Pakistan, perhaps jolted by the Taliban attack on Pakistan’s naval base.

Chinese foreign ministry said it had not seen any proposal to build a naval base in Pakistan. The statement amounts to a rejection of Pakistani defence minister Ahmad Mukhtar’s claim that his government was pushing Beijing to build a naval base near the Gwadar port.

“China and Pakistan are friendly neighbours. Regarding the specific China-Pakistan co-operative project that you raised, I have not heard of it,’’ Jiang Yu, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said in a news conference in Beijing. This is a rejection of Mukhtar’s claim that China had agreed to Pakistan’s request to take over operations of the port near Gwadar.

Jiang’s statement is significant as it comes just after Pakistan PM Gilani’s visit.