Abstract
Historically, Sea has been an important tool for supremacy and dominance over nations. The Sea Ports remained important in modern world politics but are getting more multifaceted with an upsurge in world’s commercial activities. Moreover, the ports in contemporary era are subjected to materialize two pronged objectives of strategic leverage and an economic gateway. Owing to greater strategic depth in several Asian countries, their access to sea routes through their own land routes is costly. It has obliged them to search for the shortest access to sea routes to gain a competitive edge over their trade competitors. In this context, the development of Gwadar port in Pakistan by China and Chabahar port in Iran by India is driven by competition for geographic control to secure resources and markets and also by fear of strategic encirclement. The two ports, Gwadar and Chabahar, have huge importance, both in monetary and geographic perspective, not only for Pakistan and India but also for China, Iran, and Central Asian Republics (CARs). The paper intends to delve into the importance of these ports in the region of Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia. Moreover, it also encapsulates its impacts of regional economic integration in comparison.

Muhammad Abrar Ahmad. (2017) Snooping into the Belt &Road Initiative: A Comparative Study of Gwadar with Chabahar Port, Journal of the Punjab University Historical Society, Volume 30, Issue 2.
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