Pakistan to Buy Eight Submarines from China
Pakistan is close to signing a $4 to $5 billion deal to buy eight submarines from China, the Financial Times said on Thursday, in what it added would likely be China's largest overseas arms sale.
The Pakistan Navy says Islamabad has given the green light to the military's plan to purchase eight conventional submarines from China, reports Huanqiu, the Chinese-language website of China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times.
Pakistan has been negotiating the submarine purchase with China since 2011, with initial plans to purchase six, and subsequently raising the number to eight. The plan is viewed as a means to address the country’s force imbalance with India.
The navy told the country's National Security Council that the federal government supports its plan on Monday and said it believes the council will eventually approve it too.
Pakistani newspaper the Dawn said on Wednesday that negotiations with China on the sale were at an advanced stage. Neither China's Defence nor Foreign Ministries immediately responded to a request for comment.
Officials have said that other proposals are being considered, noting that the "Pakistan Navy is also in touch with Germany, Britain and France to purchase used submarines."
Details on the type of vessels or their price tag are murky. IHS Jane’s quotes an unnamed Pakistani Foreign Ministry official who said that, “in the recent past, there have been reports of discussions for the Type 041 submarines.”
Pakistan had earlier tried to purchase three Type 214 diesel-electric submarines from Germany but the deal could not be finalized as Islamabad deemed them to be too expensive. Pakistan also held negotiations with France for acquiring Scorpène-class submarines but French refused to sell them to Pakistan.
The Agosta submarine scandal of 1994 with its ongoing corruption charges and death of 11 French engineers in Karachi in a terror attack in 2002 contributed to the French refusal.
It will be interesting to hear what is announced on the Chinese-developed Gwadar Port, which has been cited in India as an example of Beijing's attempt to encircle India with naval bases, and also as a way for China to avoid maritime choke points in the Indian and Pacific oceans by moving Persian Gulf oil and gas over land from Gwadar to China.
