Pakistan to get Chinese frigates by 2013
Pakistan Times National News Desk

BEIJING (China): China will provide four F-22P advanced quality frigates to Pakistan by 2013, meeting its defence requirement.

Of these, three will be manufactured in China, while one frigate will be built in Pakistan. First frigate will be available to Pakistan Navy within a period of three and half years, this was stated by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Shahid Karimullah here on Thursday.

The total cost of the project will be about $600 million. The funding will be made by the government of Pakistan. However, the Chinese side has agreed to extend necessary credit facility to implement the project.

This is highly significant deal between the two navies, the Naval Chief said, adding, “This could be made possible, only because of the personal interest taken by President Pervez Musharraf and the Chinese President Hu Jintao.”

The two sides showed a strong political will to undertake this project, further strengthening their on-going defence cooperation, he remarked.

Admiral Shahid Karimullah said the four frigates will replace the existing ones, which are going to be out-dated. Besides this, the Chinese side will also provide six medium-size standardised helicopters (Z-9C) to Pakistan Navy.

The project which was formally launched in Shanghai this week, is another manifestation of the their time-tested friendship, he added.

The supply of the warships to Pakistan is part of a contract signed April this year between China’s State Ship-Building Corporation and Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence Procurement on the occasion of Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Islamabad.
The contract also involves training of Pakistan navy personnel, including those of Karachi Shipyard. It also covers the important requirement of transfer of technology.

Accordingly one frigate will be built in Pakistan, he added.

The Naval Chief said he held productive meetings with his Chinese counterpart and the Defence Minister. The Chinese military leaders assured him that the contract will be completed, strictly in accordance with stipulated quality and the time-frame.

Such deal, he said, is also reflection of Pakistan’s ‘East look’ and its consistent policy to carry forward its ‘All-weather friendship’ with China.

To a question, the Naval Chief said the frigates will help to maintain the country’s naval surface warfare capability. “We can also consider to buy submarines from China in future,” he added.

Expressing complete satisfaction over the frigates’ deal, the Naval Chief added that it was for the first time that the two navies reached a high-level collaboration.

China made marvellous progress in the defence production sector in the recent years and the quality of their products were meeting the international standard, he added.

Defence sources say, the F-22P frigates would be equipped with organic helicopters specially designed for surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles along with numerous associated self-defense systems.

China is Pakistan’s long-time ally and main supplier of military equipments. Their defence cooperation has always been a source of peace and stability in the region.●