Pakistan betrays China

Xi Jinping must have been shocked when he heard the news while he was in Moscow where he and his limitless friend exchanged compliments. Pakistan, China’s ‘iron brother’ suddenly is arming Ukraine, Xi’s friend’s enemy. How could new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif change camp into Washington’s sphere? Still on October 3, 2021 Pakistan abstained in the United Nation’s General Assembly in the vote on the resolution on Russia-Ukraine issues. How could Pakistan dare to give up its neutrality on the war and betray the authoritarian tandem so badly?

Since 1987 Ukraine has been building Soviet era T-80 tanks. After independence in 1991 they have by and by built many upgraded state-of-the-art battle tanks with a new diesel motor. In 1996 Pakistan ordered 320 T-80 UD (Ukraine Diesel) tanks and paid them $650 million.

In the meantime Pakistan is impoverished. Imran Khan, Sharif’s predecessor has fallen into China’s debt trap. The Pakistan-China Economic Corridor from China’s border to the deep-sea port of Gwadar has ruined Pakistan’s finances. Pakistan owes China about $100 billion and $22 billion to several international lenders. Saudi Arabia refuses to bail out the country further and Kuwait is urging due amortization payments for their $120 million loans. Pakistan is so badly cash-strapped that on their national day on March 23 this year they had to cancel their military parade for the first time since state foundation in 1947. Other reasons are financial mismanagement, corruption, and military adventures in India’s Kashmir region. Inflation stands at 28% and the Pakistani Rupee is in freefall.

The income from the arms sale into the national treasury is a welcome relief but scarcely rescues Pakistan’s economy.

In Gwadar, fishermen protest against the port that blocks them from access to the Indian Ocean. They claim that only China is profiting from the deep-sea port. The Baloch Liberation Army destroyed an oil depot and other port installations. They want the Chinese out of Pakistan. In June 2021 a bus was raided and nine Chinese engineers were killed. They had been working on a hydropower project in northern Pakistan. The government had to shell out $11.6 million in compensation for the bereaved families.

In November last year Ukrainian emissaries visited Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. They asked for weapons and got not only the 44 tanks but also howitzers, 10,000 rockets for Multi-Launch Rocket Systems, primers, gloves, etc. In February 2023 several ships under American flag secretly left Karachi and delivered the arms to German and Polish ports. But when just last week the Economic Times, an Indian newspaper, confirmed the arrival of 159 containers with arms in Gdansk the secrecy was broken. Putin and Xi learned of it. What angered Putin most is that a number of volunteer mercenaries accompanied the now no-longer secret shipments. They will fight on the side of Zelensky’s depraved “Nazis” against his victoriously regrouping armies. So at least goes his propaganda. None of the two dictators showed their ire publicly.

We will see in the near future if they will punish Pakistan for the betrayal.

This is the gist from what I gathered from reports of the Indian TV WION over the last few days. World Is One is known for being in line with PM Narendra Modi’s neutrality policies and being adverse to Pakistan. The only newspaper that reports on the arms deliveries is another Indian paper the Hindustan Times. Referring to Economic Times, HT says that 10,000 rockets were delivered to the German port of Emden. So I checked German news. No mainstream paper reports on the topic. Only tweets and two dubious (military?) sources all citing Economic Times’ report on the arrival of arms at Emden. A Greek paper in German language, Athen Nachrichten, speaks of 146 containers (not 159). But the numbers of rockets vary between 10 and 50,000. The usually well-informed French media are absolutely mum on Pakistani arms deliveries. I did not find a report on the topic in English language YouTube articles that would bolster the veracity of WION.