Pakistan’s largest airport becomes operational, part of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative

Pakistan’s largest airport, funded and built in the country’s restive southwest by Beijin g, has become operational, officials said Monday. Gwadar airport is in the province of Balochistan, which has for decades been the scene of an insurgency by separatists demanding autonomy or outright independence. Pakistani Defense Minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, and Chinese officials were among those attending a ceremony at Gwadar airport and watched the arrival of the Pakistan International Airlines inaugural flight from the southern city of Karachi. The ceremony came months after Chinese Premier Li Qiang and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif virtually inaugurated the airport, which has a capacity of handling 400,000 travelers annually. Beijing has invested heavily in the coastal city of Gwadar. Besides the airport, which has an estimated cost of $230m, China has also constructed a deep seaport as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative to increase trade by building infrastructure around the world. This aims to also give Beijing direct access to the shipping lanes of the Arabian Sea through Pakistan via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.<br/>