Building partnerships in Southwest Asia is a key element of communist China’s inexorable march toward Xi Jinping’s goal of domination of the world economy.
The modern Silk Road includes branches to ports in Pakistan and Iran. BRI involves exporting Chinese infrastructure capacity as a mechanism for facilitating access to raw materials and energy resources needed by Chinese manufacturing concerns while concurrently developing new overseas markets for Chinese goods.
Beijing seeks to develop an integrated economic market consisting of “all Eurasian nations”—the economic component of a Chinese “new world order.” Integral to the network is the development of a series of land corridors to facilitate overland trade, including the China–Central Asia–West Asia Corridor running from Western China to Turkey.
The Chinese strategy involves greatly improved ties with Pakistan and Iran, which is becoming a de facto alliance of sorts.
China and Iran
Communist Chinese relations with Tehran were frosty from 1949 to 1970, as the Iranian diplomatic posture under the Shah was decidedly anti-communist in purpose and intent, with Iran signing the anti-communist Baghdad Pact in 1955. The Baghdad Pact was a pro-Western defense alliance between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Shah moved his government toward closer relations with China, even as U.S. President Richard Nixon laid the groundwork for “opening China” with a surprise visit to Shanghai. In August 1971, the Chinese and Iranian ambassadors met in Islamabad, Pakistan, and signed a document in which Iran formally recognized the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the ruler of China. At that time, the two governments were aligned to counter the Soviet Union in Southwest Asia.
That agreement also included plans for cooperation on training and research, defense industries, and military joint ventures in asymmetric warfare, anti-terrorism, and combating drug trafficking, all of which have been slowed by United Nations sanctions on Iran. Nevertheless, technology exchanges and military cooperation will continue as those sanctions are eased.
China and Pakistan
China–Pakistan relations have strengthened greatly since Pakistan became the first Muslim country to recognize communist China in 1950. The countries have been diplomatically and militarily aligned as they share a common adversary—India. A key benefit of the relationship for Pakistan was China’s technical assistance in the development and testing of the first “Muslim nuclear weapon” in 1990, as noted by U.S. News and World Report.The current emphasis of their relationship is developing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which aims to connect the deep-sea Pakistani ports of Gwadar and Karachi to Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region, also known as East Turkmenistan, and beyond.
As a premier project under the BRI, CPEC aims to develop and modernize Pakistan’s transportation infrastructure to accelerate trade between the two countries. It emphasizes improving electrical distribution and transportation networks.
Pakistan and Iran
Pakistan (predominantly Sunni Muslim) and Iran (predominantly Shia Muslim) share a 565-mile border that arbitrarily divides “greater Baluchistan” into separate provinces in the south. Pakistani and Iranian relations have evolved greatly over the last 40 years.In the last two decades of the 20th century, geopolitical differences led to tensions and challenges, as Iran was aligned with independent Mujahadeen after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan while Pakistan supported the U.S.-led coalition and hosted large numbers of Afghan refugees.
Each has accused the other of supporting insurgent groups and militant attacks in their countries in recent years. The problems escalated in January 2024, as Iran conducted a cross-border missile and drone attack in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan that targeted the Jaish al-Adl group, which Tehran claimed was responsible for several attacks inside Iran.
Concluding Thoughts
In August 2023, The Diplomat reported “the first meeting of the China-Iran-Pakistan trilateral consultation on counterterrorism and security.” The focus was increased collaboration among the three nations on counterterrorism, economic integration, and energy cooperation. This includes cooperation in handling common Baluchi insurgency problems for Iran and Pakistan, while China seeks to shape its BRI investment objectives in Iran and Pakistan.And on the economic front, with Gwadar port as a commercial trading outlet to the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean firmly ensconced within China’s web, the CCP can focus BRI development efforts on another Arabian Sea outlet at the nearby Iranian port of Chabahar. Additionally, it can connect the Chinese land port of Khorgos on the Kazakhstan border with the Pamir Highway through Kyrgyzstan to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and the north/south road through Afghanistan.
Any seasoned China watcher can easily visualize the potential of these geopolitical and strategic chessboard moves. The budding China–Pakistan–Iran alliance is a key milestone that will bring the CCP’s dreams of the new Silk Road to fruition in Southwest Asia.