巴基斯坦批准購買中國潛艇交易
Pakistan’s government has approved a deal to buy eight submarines from China, in what some analysts say will be the largest defence contract between the countries — and the biggest arms export deal for China.
Although officials from Pakistan’s navy neither gave a price tag nor revealed the types of submarines being pursued, they confirmed a decision “in principle” during a hearing of the parliamentary defence committee in Islamabad.
儘管巴基斯坦海軍官員拒絕透露價格或潛艇型號，但他們證實，議會國防委員會在伊斯蘭堡舉行的一場聽證會上做出了“原則上”的決定。A former senior Pakistan navy officer close to the talks said the contract could be worth $4bn-$5bn. “China has agreed again to fill a strategic gap,” he said. “It was about time we placed an order.”
接近談判的巴基斯坦海軍一名前高級軍官稱，這份合同可能價值40億至50億美元。“中國已再次同意填補一項戰略空白，”他說。“我們也該下訂單了。”
Chinese analysts valued the deal at less than half that amount.
中國分析人士對這筆交易的估價爲上述數額的不到一半。Islamabad has long been Beijing’s top arms customer, driving China’s emergence as a big exporter of military hardware. Pakistan bought more than 40 per cent of China’s arms exports over the past five years, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
巴基斯坦一直是中國的頭號武器客戶，推動中國成爲軍事裝備出口大國。斯德哥爾摩國際和平研究所(SIPRI)稱，巴基斯坦在過去五年裏買下了40%以上的中國武器出口。China’s arms exports surged 143 per cent over the same period, making it the world’s third-largest arms exporter, behind only the US and Russia.
同期中國武器出口猛增143%，使其成爲世界第三大武器出口國，僅次於美國和俄羅斯。Analysts in Islamabad say Beijing may have agreed to the deal to help counter the perceived threat from India, amid fears the country is building its navy to claim a presence in the Pacific.
伊斯蘭堡的分析人士表示，北京方面可能已經同意了這筆交易，以幫助反制來自印度的潛在威脅。中國有人擔心，印度正在爲進軍太平洋而建設其海軍。“China has its own strategic reasons to help Pakistan in this area,” said Ali Sarwar Naqvi, a former senior Pakistani diplomat. “As India prepares to head into the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese are looking to head into the Indian Ocean.”
“中國在這方面幫助巴基斯坦有自己的戰略考慮，”巴基斯坦前高級外交官阿里•薩瓦爾•納克維(Ali Sarwar Naqvi)表示。“在印度準備進入太平洋之際，中國正尋機進入印度洋。”Ian Storey, at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, agreed there was clear strategic rationale.
新加坡東南亞研究所(Institute of Southeast Asian Studies)的伊恩•斯托裏(Ian Storey)也認爲，這筆交易有明確的戰略邏輯。“India has been modernising and expanding its navy for over a decade now,” he said. “While Pakistan can never close the gap between its own and India’s conventional armed forces, submarines would provide the Pakistan navy with a credible deterrent.”
“印度推進海軍現代化和擴軍已有十多年了，”他說。“儘管巴基斯坦永遠不可能在常規武裝力量方面彌合其與印度的差距，但潛艇將給巴基斯坦海軍帶來可信的威懾力量。”
