Given the Arabian Sea’s turbulent political condition at the moment, this case definitely ranks as being the most alarming incident that has taken place in a long time. Last month, India’s Navy raised a big alert when a Chinese attack submarine went into Indian water territory and docked in Karachi.
Reports have made it clear that the Chinese Yuan Class 335 submarine vessel successfully crossed the Arabian Sea and subsequently entered the port of Karachi on the 22nd of May. The submarine which has at least a 65-man crew potentially spent a week at minimum in Karachi in order to refuel and restock and then sailed back to China. The incident occurred less than a week following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Beijing trip.
The deadliest conventional submarine in China’s disposal departed from its Hainan island base in the South China Sea on March 31st of this year, as made evident my various reports. The 335 submarine features anti-ship missiles, torpedoes and an air-independent propulsion that contributes a great deal for enhancing its underwater endurance. The Yuan-class vessel entered the Gulf of Aden approximately a fortnight later after having left the base but it was the submarine’s firs port of call that raised concern among the South Block’s security establishment.
Various experts have voiced their opinion about Beijing’s first-ever submarine deployment to Pakistan and according to them this could be viewed as a potential new cat-and-mouse game that is about to take place in the region. China has also managed to negotiate agreements to sell around 8 Yuan class submarines to Pakistan over the course of the next couple of years.
Navy chief Admiral RK Dhowan commented in front of reporters in New Delhi on May 28th that India was minutely monitoring China’s naval activity in the Indian Ocean. According to him this could be the beginning of a new great game regarding the most important water body in the world.
As evident by a New York-based Council on Foreign Relations report, Pakistan accounts for having the world’s fastest growing nuclear programme. The arsenal in its possession was manufactured with the help of China’s technology and the country currently has 100-120 warheads, in comparison to India’s 90-100 units and China’s own 250.