Booming Baluchistan: Who Benefits from These Lucrative Trade Routes?

Jeff Palmer

Economics, Asia

The biggest winners may be Iran and Russia, not India and China.

Baluchistan—divided between the Iranian province of Sistan va Baluchestan, the parts of Afghanistan around Kandahar, Nimruz and Helmand and Pakistan’s Balochistan province—is on track to emerge as one of the most pivotal geo-economic hubs of the twenty-first century. Its main port in Pakistan, Gwadar, is the hub of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is where China has promised a series of investments in transportation and energy initiatives that would develop the infrastructure at the port itself, rail and roadways connecting Gwadar with Kashgar in western China, and oil and gas pipelines that would connect China, Pakistan and Iran. Iran’s southernmost port city of Chabahar, separated from Gwadar by only forty-four miles, is the focal point of Indian efforts to access Central Asia via Iran and Afghanistan, particularly to provide a secure route for Eurasian resources to arrive in India. There are also proposals that would link Chabahar to the emerging north-south corridor that is set to connect Iran to Russia, as well as connections to the Silk Road Economic Belt, which would provide a direct trade link between India and the European Union.