PAKISTAN: The country’s largest airport, funded and built in the south-west as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, has become operational, officials said today.

Gwadar airport is in the province of Balochistan, which has for decades been the scene of an insurgency by separatists demanding autonomy or outright independence.

The opening took place months after Chinese Premier Li Qiang and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif virtually inaugurated the airport.