Bump in ties between ‘best friends’ Pak,China?

Gilani has previously said that the two friends “are like one nation and two countries”.

“We have asked our Chinese brothers to please build a naval base at Gwadar,” Ahmad Mukhtar,told journalists,last week.

This week,however,China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman,Jiang Yu,said there was no such deal.

“Regarding the specific China-Pakistan cooperative project that you raised,I have not heard of it. It’s my understanding that during the visit last week this issue was not touched upon,” she said.

The Times spoke to experts who tried to explain the discrepancy.

“Maybe there were some discussions between the two sides when Gilani was up in China last week,bearing on some kind of future Chinese stewardship of the port,” said Michael Kugelman,a South Asia scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre in Washington.

“Maybe there was some speculative discussion. Perhaps the Defence Ministry simply got its signals wrong,” he said.

Other experts pointed out that Pakistan’s announcement may have been an attempt to send a message to Washington that Islamabad had other friends and options.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington have further deteriorated after a raid by US Navy Seals killed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.