New Delhi: Chinese and Pakistani navies will be conducting their first joint patrol in the high seas, indicating the flourishing military relationship that both share.
While the US has been traditionally the big arms supplier to Pakistan for several decades, China has now emerged as the key player with sales from artillery to fighter aircraft and submarines.
The joint patrolling in the Arabian Sea was announced by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) as part of the ongoing bilateral naval exercise.
This comes soon after India and the US held the fifth edition of the annual 2+2 ministerial dialogues to cooperate on security issues, on 10 November in New Delhi. The exercise also comes after Russia, Myanmar held naval drills, beginning 7 November, in the Andaman Sea.
The opening ceremony of the Sea Guardian-2023 was held at the Pakistan Navy Dockyard in Karachi. The PLA Navy forces include the Type 052D guided missile destroyer Zibo, the Type 054A guided missile destroyers Jingzhou and Linyi, according to Global Times.
As per the PLA, six vessels, including the guided-missile destroyer Zibo, guided-missile frigates Jingzhou and Linyi, and the comprehensive supply ship Qiandaohu, along with two shipborne helicopters and dozens of marines. China’s PLA Navy has also deployed a Type-093 Song class diesel-electric submarine for the exercise.
Also Read: US sanctions 3 Chinese firms for ‘supplying materials’ to Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme
China’s defence cooperation with Pakistan
Military cooperation between the two countries is elaborate, and Pakistan remains heavily dependent on China for its defence needs.
In a special report published in March 2023, United States Institute of Peace stated: “Pakistan received significant injections of US arms during the Afghan jihad in the 1980s and during the war on terror (particularly from 2005 to 2015), but the volume of US arms never caught up with that of Chinese arms transfers, which began a steep ascent around 2009.
“The dramatic growth in arms transfers is clear while looking at trend-indicator value (TIV), a measure of the volume of international arms transfers that represents relative military resources rather than the financial value.
The estimated value of Chinese arms transferred to Pakistan in the past 15 years ($8,469 million TIV) is nearly equal to the estimated value of arms transferred to Pakistan by China in the previous 50 years ($8,794 million TIV). Since 2015, China has provided nearly 75 percent of all of Pakistan’s imported arms (by TIV).”
Chinese platforms such as the JF-17 multirole combat aircraft form the largest share of Pakistan’s modern fighter fleet. Pakistan has also inducted limited numbers of the J-10 fighters.
In 2021, Pakistan acquired the Chinese-made Air Defence (AD) system HQ-9/P, also called the High-to-Medium Air Defence System Surface to Air Missile (HMADSAM) system.
Similarly, the Pakistan Army uses a number of Chinese-origin equipment such as artillery and rocket launchers.
For its Navy, Pakistan is said to have inducted Chinese Type 054A/P frigates, and potentially even a destroyer, alongside its already deployed F-22 frigate for sea control. Pakistan has also ordered for Hangor-class submarines that are being built simultaneously in the two countries.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: All about Russia’s stealthy Borei-class nuclear submarines that test-fired Bulava ballistic missile