Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 7

China could set up a military base in Pakistan and it has capabilities to launch precision strikes at distances of 10,000 km or more with its road-mobile nuclear missiles, warns a report of the US Department of Defence released today by the Pentagon in the US.Titled “Annual report to the Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2017”, it says: “China, most likely, will seek to establish additional military bases in countries with which it has a longstanding friendly relationship and similar strategic interests, such as Pakistan.”(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The US report said Pakistan had a precedent for hosting foreign militaries. It did not specify what kind of base could China have in Pakistan — a seaport or a land-based port. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has the provision of making a huge port at Gawadar — some 100 miles west of Karachi. Chinese submarines have used the Pakistan Navy’s facilities at Karachi to dock and refuel.In another India-related aspect, the report says the focus areas of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) include China’s borders with India and North Korea, East China Sea, the South China Sea. India has un-demarcated 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) which is deemed to be the boundary with China.In February 2016, Beijing started construction of first overseas military base at Djibouti on the north-eastern African Coast. The report hinted at how China was also supplying submarines to India’s neighbours. “Last year, China signed an agreement with Pakistan for the sale of eight submarines. The first four will be built in China, with the remaining four in Pakistan,” the 106-page report said. It listed Bangladesh and Burma — both India’s neighbours — as the other customers of China.The US report talks about China’s military reforms started in February 2016, saying: “These seek to enhance the PLA’s ability to conduct joint operations; improve its ability to fight short-duration and high-intensity regional conflicts at greater distances from the Chinese mainland.”The PLA, which is biggest standing Army in the world, established five regionally based joint theaters, replacing the decades-old ground force-dominated seven military regions (MR). “PLA reforms appear to have oriented each new theatre command towards a specific set of contingencies,” said the report. India faces the PLA’s Western theatre and also the Tibet Area command.The PLA Navy places a high priority on the modernisation of its submarine force. It currently possesses five nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN), four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), and 54 diesel-powered attack submarines (SS). By 2020, this force is likely to grow to anywhere between 69 and 78 submarines.

India to UNHRC: Pak fuelling J&K unrest

• At the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, India said the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan has been the primary source of unrest in Jammu and Kashmir
• Rajiv K Chander, India’s permanent representative at the UN, said: “The central problem in J&K is cross-border terrorism, and Pakistan’s use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. This fact needs due recognition by one and all. We firmly believe that a policy of zero tolerance to terrorism is as much an international obligation as it is a commitment to our own people.” tns