Pakistan's Pasni Port offer to US: Strategic shift to counter China, challenge India in Indian Ocean?

Will Pakistan jettison its all-weather friend China and become a vassal state of the US once again? Will Washington distance itself further from New Delhi and woo Islamabad? Is it the unexpected fallout of India's denial of Donald Trump's role in stopping the four-day India-Pakistan military conflict taking place in May? New Delhi must be rattled by the fact that Islamabad has offered its fishing town of Pasni, situated on the Arabian Sea, to the US. 

Pasni port to change Indian Ocean security dynamics?

According to a reports published in the 'Financial Times', advisors to Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, have approached the Trump administration with an offer of allowing it to develop the small and nondescript fishing town into a port, which may give it a foothold in the Indian Ocean, considered to be one of the most sensitive areas from geostrategic point of view. This is the area where China is spreading its security net by taking ports of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and Seychelles under its control. Situated only 112km from Iran, 161km from Gwadar Port and 330 km from Chabahar, a port under the US control may change the geopolitical scenario and security dynamics of the Indian Ocean Rim. It may disturb not only China but also India. 

(Gwadar Port in Balochistan, Pakistan)

How did Pakistan woo Donald Trump?

It is believed that the issue was raised when Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Munir met Donald Trump in the White House last month, when the had gone to attend the UNGA annual meeting. Field Marshal Munir was ridiculed by his country for showing a box containing samples of the rare earth minerals to Trump. However, it was a part of a big Pakistan strategy of wooing the US. It came after Islamabad had joined a Trump-backed cryptocurrency venture, deepened cooperation in Afghanistan by handing over an Islamic State operative, backed Washington's plan to recapture Bagram air base, offered rare earth minerals in Balochistan, nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize and backed his Gaza Peace Plan. 

Fallout of India-Pakistan clash?

All these steps to appease Washington and cater to the inflated ego of its Nobel Prize-obsessed president were taken after New Delhi denied that Trump had mediated the India-Pakistan ceasefire in May and brought the military clashes to an end. The US president returned the favour by heaping lavish praise on Sharif and Munir, calling them 'wonderful people', thanking them for his 20-point peace plan in Gaza and announcing the Balochistan Liberation Army and its affiliate Majeed Brigade as a foreign-based terrorist organization. 

Pakistan to counter-balance China?

'Financial Times' has reported that according to the blueprint of the project given by Pakistan, "Pasni’s proximity to Iran and Central Asia enhances US options for trade and security . . . Engagement at Pasni would counterbalance Gwadar . . . and expand US influence in the Arabian Sea and Central Asia." It can counter-balance the Gwadar Port, being developed by China under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Beijing has already invested the whopping amount of $65 billion in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other projects. 

(Chabahar Port in Iran)

Will Pasni Port be security threat to India?

A US-controlled port in the vicinity of India, particularly in the Indian Ocean, may pose a security threat to India. It has come at a time when the India-US relations have hit rock rock-bottom over the issues of tariffs, Russian oil and Trump's alleged role in mediation. Pasni gains more significance in the wake of Sheikh Hasina's allegation that she was removed from power after she had refused to hand over Saint Martin's Island to Washington.