IDSA Occasional Paper No. 53 MAKRAN GATEWAYS A Strategic Reference for Gwadar and Chabahar Philip Reid MAKRAN GATEWAYS | 1 IDSA OCCASIONAL PAPER NO. 53 MAKRAN GATEWAYS A STRATEGIC REFERENCE FOR GWADAR AND CHABAHAR PHILIP REID 2 | PHILIP REID Cover image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Buzi_Pass,_Makran_Coastal_Highway.jpg Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, sorted in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). ISBN: 978-93-82169-85-7 First Published: August 2019 Published by: Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses No.1, Development Enclave, Rao Tula Ram Marg, Delhi Cantt., New Delhi - 110 010 Tel. (91-11) 2671-7983 Fax.(91-11) 2615 4191 E-mail:
[email protected] Website: http://www.idsa.in Cover & Layout by: Vaijayanti Patankar MAKRAN GATEWAYS | 3 MAKRAN GATEWAYS: A STRATEGIC REFERENCE FOR GWADAR AND CHABAHAR AN OCEAN APART In 1955, Jawaharlal Nehru shared his perceptions with India’s Defence Minister, K.N. Katju, on what is now referred to as the ‘Indian Ocean Region’ (IOR), ‘We have been brought up into thinking of our land frontier during British times and even subsequently and yet India, by virtue of her long coastline, is very much a maritime country.’1 Eurasia’s ‘southern ocean’ differs in an abstract sense, from the Atlantic and Pacific basins, in so much as it has primarily functioned, since the late-medieval and early- modern eras, as a closed strategic space: accessible, at least at practical latitudes, by only a handful of narrow channels.