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Pakistan and Central Asian Republics

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56 views3 pages

Pakistan and Central Asian Republics

Uploaded by

jzzaqasim66
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Pakistan’s geo-economic strategy is

taking shape in Central Asia


Previously unexplored trade opportunities can flourish if Pakistan succeeds with its Silk
Road Reconnect Policy

• Pakistan presumably sought to prioritise geo-economic engagement


with the CARs for several pragmatic reasons.
• Firstly, Pakistan is the most important stakeholder in Afghanistan.
• Secondly, it aims to connect more closely with the broader region after
the war inevitably ends through the trilateral Pakistan-Afghanistan-
Uzbekistan (PAKAFUZ) railway that was agreed upon in February.
• Thirdly, this will open up a potential market of $90 billion.
• Fourthly, improved trade ties between Central and South Asia via
PAKAFUZ will strengthen the Economic Cooperation Organization
(ECO) that Pakistan and the CARs participate in.
• Fifthly, the end effect is intended to be that this platform and its many
members become more important to the global economy.
• CPEC institutionalized Chinese-Pakistani economic relations, while
PAKAFUZ will provide a springboard for Russia to enhance its
economic engagement with South Asia the same as the US can utilize
this infrastructure project through the recently established “New Quad”
to more effectively engage with Afghanistan and the CARs.
• With such important stakeholders in its success, Pakistan hopes that
these Great Powers would collectively ensure that no hostile third party
such as India succeeds in destabilizing it anytime in the future otherwise
their own investments would be threatened too.
• The Silk Road Reconnect Policy (SRRP), which is what Mr. Dawood
termed Pakistan’s Central Asian outreaches, can be considered a proof
of concept that the country’s larger CPEC+ vision can succeed. If
Pakistan is able to pull this off, then it’ll vastly improve the odds that the
other CPEC+ corridors to West Asia (W-CPEC+) and Africa (S-CPEC+)
can eventually enter into service too.
• Right now Pakistan has an unprecedented opportunity to prove the
viability of these visions through the SRRP because PAKAFUZ is literally
the only reliable means for the rest of the world to economically engage
with the CARs.

FAYSAL GONDAL 1
• This will therefore bring global attention to Pakistan’s geo-economic
grand strategy and hopefully result in positively reshaping everyone’s
perceptions about it with time.
• Most immediately, the international community can see that Pakistan is
facilitating global efforts to contribute to Afghanistan’s socio-economic
reconstruction through new investments and more trade.

• This will become all the more likely if it can clinch the preferential trade
deals with its PAKAFUZ partners that Mr.

• Pakistan’s challenge is to balance its relations with Saudi Arabia while


maintaining a good relationship with Iran. With Iran bordering
Balochistan, a stable and peaceful border requires close cooperation
between the two countries. But a sharp division between the Muslim
countries — with Saudi Arabia leading the Sunni countries and Iran the
stronghold of Shia faction — demands that Pakistan conduct foreign
policy with great finesse. The challenge grows even more as Pakistan has
a significant Shia population estimated to be anywhere between 12 to
15%. The US-Iran hostility greatly accentuated during the former
President’s tenure was another factor that placed great strain on
diplomacy and required astute handling of relations with Iran. It indeed
goes to the credit of Pakistan that it managed the balancing act very well
without taking sides although there was greater alignment and proximity
toward Saudi Arabia.
PM's geo-economic vision making way to
Central Asia through peaceful Afghanistan
• The country, after its significant shift from geo-strategic to geo-economic
policies.
• The premier has repeatedly emphasised that Pakistan is the “most
interested” in the resumption of peace in Afghanistan, for its own
interests.
• Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan on February 2 agreed to a
roadmap for the construction of a 573-kilometre route from Mazar-e-
Sharif to Peshawar via Kabul.
• The project, at an estimated cost of $5 billion, will open Pakistani
seaports on the Arabian Gulf to Uzbekistan and continue Afghanistan’s
gradual integration into the Central Asian economic system.
• The new corridor will improve connectivity with an annual transit
potential of up to 20 million tons of cargo transportation.

FAYSAL GONDAL 2
• “For Pakistan, it connects us to Central Asia, to Uzbekistan which is the
biggest of the Central Asian republics and beyond,” he said.
• The regional connectivity also promises an immense potential for the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to benefit the Central Asian
region in areas of transport, fiber optic cables, energy pipelines and
investment opportunities in the Special Economic Zones.
• The projects discussed at the trilateral meeting on Wednesday included
building railway links between Central Asia and Pakistan and a gas
pipeline that goes all the way to India via Pakistan. All such links pass
through Afghanistan and Pakistan and could only be built if there’s peace
in Afghanistan and between the two neighbours.
• They also reviewed the proposed 1,814 km Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-
Pakistan-India Pipeline. The project began in 1995, when Turkmenistan
and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding to bring natural
gas from fields in Turkmenistan to South Asia. The situation in
Afghanistan, however, stalled the project.

An official delegation from Uzbekistan, led by Foreign Minister Abdulaziz


Kamilov, had visited Pakistan in November 2018. In his discussions with
Pakistani officials, Mr Kamilov proposed building a railroad connection
between the two countries that would pass through Afghanistan.

Proposals discussed at various international forums have explored various


routes for connecting Pakistani ports with Central Asia.

• These include: The 1,658km Kushka (Turkmenistan)-Turghundi


(Afghanistan)-Herat-Kandahar-Chaman and Karachi route; the 1,968km
Termez (Uzbekistan)-Kabul-Kandahar-Chaman-Karachi route; the
2,318km Termez-Kabul-Peshawar-Karachi port route; the 3,517km
Almaty (Kazakhstan)-Torogart (China)-Khunjerab-Gilgit-Rawalpindi-
Karachi route; the 2,575km Ashgabat (Turkmenistan)-Badjigiran (Iran)-
Zahedan-Taftan-Quetta-Karachi route and the 3,600km Baku
(Azerbaijan)-Astara (Iran)-Zahedan-Taftan route.The trilateral meeting
also reviewed proposals for mitigating the consequences of Covid-19 on
food security in the South and Central Asian regions.
• The participants called on countries of the region to promote the Afghan
peace process and to “support the goal of a durable political settlement
preserving the gains of the past 18 years to end the war in that country,”
said the joint statement.

FAYSAL GONDAL 3

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