China fears that India may be able to block the disputed Gilgit-Baltistan trade route in the future, but if Pakistan and China manage to seize control of Wakhan Corridor, it will provide them with an alternate route for trade and access to each other.
Pakistan and China are reportedly hatching a cowardly plot to corner India by capturing the strategic Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, which stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. According to a senior Pakistani analyst, Pakistan and China are planning to capture Wakhan Corridor from Afghanistan as it holds strategic importance for both nations.
If the two allies manage to capture the key corridor, it would provide China direct access to Pakistan, while the latter will also gain easy access to Central Asia through Tajikistan. In 2021, when the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, Islamabad had hoped that it would get unrestricted access to the Wakhan Corridor, but ties between the two have since hit rock bottom and the two neighbours are even staring at a potential full-blown Pakistan-Taliban war.
Why this is significant for India?
Currently, the Gilgit-Baltistan route is the only trade route between China and Pakistan, however, India has raised objections on global forums on this because New Delhi considers the region as part of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), which has been illegally occupied by Pakistan.
China fears that India may be able to block this trade route in the future, but if Beijing and Islamabad manage to seize control of Wakhan Corridor, it will provide them with an alternate route for trade and access to each other.
Additionally, experts believe that Beijing fears extremist elements from Afghanistan could possibly gain access inside China via the Wakhan Corridor and spread their radical Islamist ideology among Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province. There is also resentment brewing inside Afghanistan over the alleged state-sponsored atrocities against the ethnic Uyghurs in China, and Beijing that the threat of terrorists venturing into China would be far less if the Wakhan corridor is under Pakistani control.
Dubbed as the head of Afghanistan, the Wakhan Corridor has been under Taliban control since July 2021, and hold strategic significance for all three countries — India, Pakistan, and China.
