Deal finalised to buy 8 China submarines

islamabad — Pakistan and China on Thursday agreed here to a multi-billion dollar deal that would see Beijing provide eight submarines to the Pakistan Navy, in an agreement that analysts are calling the largest-ever defence deal China has agreed to with any country.

Despite the magnitude of the deal, government officials did not provide any details, even declining to confirm the size of the transaction. However, the composition of the Chinese delegation with which the agreement was reached suggests that the arrangements have been struck for purchase of eight submarines.

“Pakistan and China have reached an understanding on matters of defence cooperation relating to Pakistan Navy,” announced the finance ministry after a meeting with Chinese authorities. “Financial arrangements to this effect were also concluded.”

According to a briefing that the defence ministry gave to parliament in April this year, Pakistan was negotiating a deal for acquisition of submarines from China. In the same month, the UK-based

citing a retired senior official, claimed in a report that the contract could be worth $4 billion to $5 billion, the largest

defence contract is going to be the biggest China has ever agreed

with any country

defence deal ever with China. Sources in the finance ministry said that Pakistan would make down payments to China in four installments and the delivery of the submarines will be made in the coming years.

The financial arrangements were agreed during a meeting between Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Xu Ziqin, President of the Chinese state-owned China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Company Limited. The reports of submarines deal was in the air since the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan in April.

Pakistan has been negotiating the purchase of submarines from China since 2011. No details were, however, given about the type of the submarines. But there have been reports that Yuan-class Type-041 diesel-electric submarines were being considered. london — Flash flooding caused by torrential monsoon rains has killed at least 28 in Pakistan and affected hundreds of thousands of people, according to aid agencies, with further downpours expected in the coming days.

In Chitral in the northwest, roads, bridges and crops were badly damaged, with more than a quarter of a million affected, the EU’s humanitarian office said. Balochistan province was also badly hit.

“Some villages have been cut off from the rest of the district,” said Shah Fahad Ali Khan, 27, a university lecturer living in Zargrandeh, a village in Chitral.

People in flood-prone areas have been shifted to safer ground, he said on Friday in an online message.

Heavy rains are expected over the weekend, which may cause more flash flooding and could trigger landslides in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which includes Chitral, Pakistan’s meteorological department said earlier this week.

The heavy rains started falling on July 15, and continued over the next week throughout the country, causing some urban flooding in Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the Pakistani Red Crescent said in a statement.

Deadly flooding

is common in Pakistan’s monsoon season, which runs from June to September.

Last September dozens of people in Punjab and Kashmir were killed when flash floods caused their homes to collapse.

In 2010, the worst floods in memory affected killed more than 2,000 people in Pakistan, with damage to infrastructure running into billions of dollars, and huge swathes of crops destroyed as a fifth of the country was inundated.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced a $5 million aid package for Chitral, and visited flood relief camps in Punjab province on Friday, local media reported. —