Connect with us

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan rail link moves up the agenda

SHARE:

Published

on

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

At present Uzbekistan Railways’ link with Afghanistan runs for 75 kilometres from the border to Mazar-i-Sharif. But plans are getting underway to extend the line to Kabul and to Peshawar in Pakistan, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

A rail link that would allow far more Uzbek imports and exports to use Pakistan’s ports has long been proposed but it has moved closer to reality thanks to Uzbekistan’s policy of ‘positive neutrality’ towards Afghanistan. The President of Uzbekistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Ismatulla Irgashev, told a briefing in Brussels how his country had responded to what he called “the complex and deteriorating” situation that has followed the withdrawal of the United States and its allies from Kabul in August 2021.

Akmal Kamalov (left) Ismatulla Irgashev (right)

He spoke of a “critical and pragmatic” dialogue with the Taliban, reflecting Uzbekistan’s obligation to support Afghan people suffering hunger and cold as well as the foreign policy priority of promoting regional peace and stability. The Ambassador said he had personally been engaging with all sides in Afghanistan since the 1990s and the difference between the Taliban then and now was stark.

He spoke of the international community’s obligation to bring about a lasting peace in Afghanistan, where war had been endured for 40 years, not through the choice of the Afghan people but as a result of a clash between global powers. Uzbekistan was respected by all sides in Afghanistan, as was demonstrated when it saved the lives of tens of thousands of people last year, some of them foreign diplomats, many of them refugees whom the Taliban was persuaded to allow to return home.

Ambassador Irgashev said there was no denying that Afghanistan had its most independent government in 40 years, the problem was that the Taliban didn’t want to share power with other Afghans. He emphasised the need to build a more moderate leadership in Kabul, one that did not believe that women had no rights.

As a next step towards the proposed rail link, Afghans were receiving training at a facility in Uzbekistan and some of those Afghan trainees were women. It was a sign of greater cooperation than had been seen from previous governments in Kabul, with more willingness to advance the railway project, as well as proposed power supply links between the two countries.

The Vice-Chair of Uzbek Railways, Akmal Kamalov, gave a presentation about the $5.96 billion rail link, which would take an estimated five years to build. The Uzbek and Pakistani governments had paid for an expedition in July and August to survey the 187 kilometre route, which would include five tunnels.

Advertisement

Security issues were not of special concern as lorries were safely making the journey between the railheads at Mazar-i-Sharif and Peshawar. Shipments had increased from 28,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes in ten months.

The link that the railway would provide would be the physical manifestation of the link that Ambassador Irgashev said Uzbekistan was already offering to Afghanistan; a way to convey the idea that Afghanistan should not be a threat to any other country in the region.

Share this article:

EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter.

Trending