India, Aug. 13 -- By tying almost its entire naval modernisation to a single foreign supplier, Pakistan has traded short-term acquisition gains for long-term strategic vulnerability. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China supplied 81% of Pakistan's arms imports between 2020 and 2024. In the maritime domain, that dominance is almost total.

The centrepiece of this dependence is the Hangor-class submarine programme - eight S-26 (export Yuan-class derivative) boats, four to be built in China and four at Karachi Shipyard under a technology-transfer arrangement. While billed as capacity-building, such "transfer" is tightly ring-fenced by Chinese intellectual property, sub-systems, and maintenance pipel...