China Expands Military Ties With Pakistan

Beijing Set To Deliver First Frigate In $800 Million Deal; Islamabad Negotiates Purchase Of Advanced Fighter Planes

(CBS)  Written for CBSNews.com by Farhan Bokhari, reporting from Islamabad.

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China has taken a significant step in meeting Pakistan’s military needs with the completion of a militarily important naval frigate as part of an $800 million deal, which analysts say will further deepen Islamabad’s reliance on Beijing as a key supplier of military hardware.

Senior western diplomats based in Islamabad said China’s interest in expanding its military ties with Pakistan is linked to its overall ambition of emerging as a formidable military and defense power in the Asia-Pacific region, with the capability of eventually reaching out to influencing the oil rich Middle East.

China has supplied arms to Pakistan for more than 40 years. But this relationship which originally began as a largely military hardware supply tie-up has developed into a strategic partnership.

“In future, China probably looks at Pakistan as a country that could help it build bridges with the Islamic countries of the Middle East” said a western ambassador in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.

News of the completion of the first of four Chinese frigates designed to be sold to Pakistan comes as the Bush administration weighs its future relations with the newly-elected government of prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Washington’s main worry is prompted from public statements by newly-elected politicians who want to review the way Pakistan would execute its anti-terrorist operations against militants loyal to al Qaeda and the Taliban who operate mainly in a remote region along the Afghan border.

In the past six years, Washington has given direct or indirect assistance worth about $10 billion to the Pakistani government. But Western defense officials say Pakistan continues to maintain a close military relationship with China which is considered a more reliable ally.

In the 1990s, the U.S. slapped sanctions on Islamabad, first in retaliation over reports that Pakistan was preparing to manufacture a nuclear weapon and then after Pakistan’s maiden nuclear tests in 1998. A U.S. agreement with Pakistan to supply the country with a batch of F-16 fighter planes remained suspended in the 1990s, as the most widely visible symbol of the breakdown in the military relationship. U.S. arms sales were resumed only when Pakistan turned its back on Afghanistan's Taliban regime after the New York terrorist attacks, and joined the U.S.-led war on terror.

On Saturday, the China Daily newspaper reported that the formal ceremony to launch the first of four F-22P frigates built by China for Pakistan will take place on Monday in Shanghai, where Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir, chief of the Pakistan navy, will also be present. “They (frigates) will be deployed for the defense of our maritime interests and to meet our commitments in other aspects of maritime diplomacy,” wrote China Daily quoting Admiral Tahir.

Another three frigates will be built and delivered in the next five years including one which will be built entirely in Karachi-Pakistan’s coastal southern city. Naval analysts say, this deal involves the eventual transfer of Chinese technology that will help Pakistan eventually improve its naval shipbuilding capability in a way that the country has not been helped by any of its other allies (including the U.S.).

Responding to this news, some warned that ordinary Pakistanis are still skeptical of the relationship with the U.S. in view of that experience. “Across Pakistan, the popular view is that the U.S. is untrustworthy as an ally. China has always stood by Pakistan’s side, so ordinary people trust China as the most reliable friend of Pakistan” said one Western defense official in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.

Coming off the experience of the suspended F-16 deal in the 1990s, Pakistan began working on a plan with China in 1996 to jointly produce a new fighter plane which it hopes will become the backbone of its air force. Known as the JF-17 "Thunder," Pakistani defense officials claim that the aircraft is comparable to the earlier version of the F-16s produced in the late 1980s and early '90s.

In the past three years, Pakistan has reached an agreement with the U.S. to purchase 18 new F-16 fighter planes and up to 70 used F-16s in a deal estimated to be worth more than $3 billion. But the country has also reached an agreement with China to jointly produce up to 250 of the JF-17 fighter planes in a deal estimated by defense officials to be worth at least $5 billion.

Additionally, Pakistan is currently negotiating the purchase of between 35 to 40 of the J-10 fighter planes which is one of the most advanced fighter planes produced by China. The deal could eventually be worth $1.5 billion, according to estimates by two western defense officials who spoke to CBS News.

[glock4me]

China will see the error of its ways if/when a terror attack (by Pakistani nationals, perhaps using Chinese weapons) strikes... hopefully not at the Olympics. Surely, islame-o-nut-jobs wouldn''t attack the Olympics, right?!? I mean that would never happen... again, right?!?

[yongamerica]

When China reveals its alliance with the Taliban the world will change.

[rowdytexan2]

%u201CThere lies a sleeping giant. Let her sleep. If she wakes she will shake the world.%u201D ...Napoleon

She''s awake, and her industrial, and economic hold reaches out...

[crater7]

BEFORE THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS, OSAMA, WILL BE KILLED IN A AIR STRIKE WITH SHOCK AND AWE ACCURACY. BUSH AND HIS WARMONGERING ADMINISTRATILN WILL DECLARE," WE GOT HIM". BUT OF COURSE, THIS NEWS WILL BE CONFIRMED BY D N A COLLECTED AT THE SCENE. THERE WILL BE BODY TO CONFIRM THIS STATEMENT.

McCAIN WILL BE ELECTED PRESIDENT. AND FOUR MORE YEARS OF REPUBLICAN RULE IS SECURED. "BUSH FINALLY FINDS HIS LEGACY."

GOD "BLESS" AMERICA. NOT " G D " AMERICA.

[dargay]

Looks like Mr Bokhari found something else to write about instead of Mr Musharraf.

[thisisfunny]

This is classic quasi soft power that China is employing across the globe. America for all of its bravado must come to terms and recognize the fact that the Chinese along with its "reliable" partners are going to make the U.S. life miserable in the future. Blackwater and other mercenary criminals are not going to save us, trust me.

[sharncedar]

China is the only nattion on earth with which the United States has been at war since 1950. The Korean War was settled by a temporary armistice, not by a peace treaty. We are still at war with China, something they remember but we have been forced to forget by our greedy traitors.

Every move China makes, every economic, political, social change, all of it, is engineered to facilitate what the Chinese communist government believes is the inevitable shooting war with the US over Taiwan and over other Chinese claimed lands such as Korea and Vietnam.

We are like fools being led to the slaughter; they have built an entire country whose only purpose is war withe United States, they modernize their weapons, gather their allies, attack our economy and our country by enabling our enemies, and our traitors like the Walmart Clintons keep telling us not to pay attention.

this will be the worst war the world has ever seen, and it is inevitable if we continue to ignore the threat of the world''s largest evil empire, a ruthless dictatorship opposed fundamentally to the notions of free press, free religion, or democracy.

[gkc99]

And just think how many of those Chinese Red Army officers were trained in the USA in our leading universities and industrial labs under the H1B visa program promoted by the Bushes and the Clintons.

With the able help of Dianne Feinstein, of course. Her billionaire husband, Richard Blum, needs those China contracts, especially to buy that federal judgeship for Feinstein''s daughter.

[gurusavant]

vocal, seemingly informed opinions from everyday westerners tend to commonly imply that islam does not have a justifiable world view, especially global-politically. their opinions are formulated from that mainstream mode of mass media that has demonized the entirety of islam, and so, has instilled absolute distrust for any possibility to understand the roots of middle eastern tradition. i cannot say that i DO understand islam, but in recent investigation outside of fcc regulated information sources (internet), new understanding has emerged that places one of the most expansive global sectors in the center of political discussion, and not somewhere on the side lines, where it does not belong (next to women).

[timdgrim]

Maybe the Chinese can look for..uh what''s his name..uh ..oh yeah..Osama Bin Laden...we seem to have forgotten him. If he was only hiding on top of an OIL RESERVE..we''d have him!!

[toolmangler-2009]

Just wait ''til Islam starts exporting its Philosophy of conversion to Islam by the sword to China. Then the ''real'' War starts.

[stn_sage]

Well, it''s nice to be aware that this Pakistani-Chinese relationship exists---though, it''s too bad it isn''t with us instead!

But, it''s not surprising! Maybe the next administration can improve relations with Pakistan.