hassan
khan
The Chinese One Belt & One Road Initiative (BRI) has entered its
10th year during which it has succeeded in winning the“hearts and
minds” of the people living around the globe. However, forces of
hegemony are also active to derail the project in Central Asia
through false and fake propaganda.
Actually, they tried to start another“end-game” to sabotage the
socioeconomic and geopolitical development in these countries. Even
before the scheduled visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
to India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, US Assistant Secretary for
South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu showed his country's
serious concerns about the Chinese loans and projects.
On the contrary, the BRI has been a“connecting hub” and
“bridging force” between the continents, communities, and
corporations, working jointly to achieve the dreams of greater
regional connectivity through world-class infrastructure
development, immense socio-economic integration, and last but not
the least formation of middle corridors. In this regard, the
formation of the Middle Corridor (MC) has further enhanced the BRI
connectivity and potential utility.
The MC is a trade route that spans the Central Asian green
fields, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains, and the dawn
of the BRI has further enhanced its trans-regional connectivity.
The route is part of China's 'Belt and Road' initiative. It is
known as the China-Central Asia-West Asia Corridor which links
China and the regional markets of East Asia with Georgia, Turkey,
and the European markets.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has opened a new window of
opportunity for the regional countries. Leaders of Azerbaijan,
Georgia, and Central Asian States have grasped the emerging
opportunity and initiated inter-state cooperation through regular
bilateral visits and the signing of memorandums on the minimization
of tariffs and border crossing hurdles and jointly working for the
development of the MC. In this regard, Turkey first conceived the
corridor in the late 2000s, creating the necessary ferry, port,
railway, and road infrastructure across Central Asia and the
Caspian Sea.
There have been lots of meaningful projects launched for the
further strengthening of the MC. The Trans-Kazakhstan Railway was
opened in 2014. The completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway was
another milestone completed in 2017. It enabled rail passage
through the Caucasus Mountains for the first time since the
1990s.
Seemingly, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan in
particular, actively collaborated to turn the MC into a reality.
Together with China and Turkey, these countries have held a series
of conferences and ministerial meetings to improve their
cross-border rail links and reduce trade friction between them.
Azerbaijan holds the geographical advantage in the MC and is
situated on the East-West trade route, connecting Europe and China,
opening up a lot of opportunities. It has enhanced its potential
for transit shipments, transport, and logistics sectors.
In November 2022, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey
signed a roadmap for the simultaneous elimination of bottlenecks
and the development of the Middle Corridor for 2022-2027. The
implementation of the agreements will allow increasing the capacity
along the corridor to 10 million tons per year by 2025
At the same time, the MC promises to become a regional power
center. Even Uzbekistan has supported the development of the MC and
tries to build its own railway networks that would connect to the
corridor. According to Uzbekistan Railways (December 2022),
Uzbekistan organized a train bypassing Russia in December 2022.
For the further strengthening of the MC Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and
Uzbekistan signed the Tashkent Declaration to reshape the
cooperation of the participating countries in multiple spheres from
economy to trade, transportation, and energy, as well as address
the regional and global security challenges.
To conclude, CPEC Phase II has the potential to further enhance
the prospects of greater regional connectivity between the South
Asia, Central Asia, and South Caucasus regions. In this regard,
there is an urgent need to further improve regional trade with all
the Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan. Pakistan, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan's trade and economic relations are
constantly on the rise which should be further expanded because the
potential of trade between both regions is much greater than the
current level of trade volumes.
Azerbaijan's“superior” and“supporting” economic policies,
befitting a“trade model” with lots of“custom exemptions”, direct
flight connectivity, and strategic partnership has become a role
model for other regional countries for achieving desired goals of
greater regional connectivity.
Kazakhstan's rigorous and diversified“in-person approach” has
given it a comparative advantage in this regard. It follows
holistic and comprehensive innovative diplomacy to increase
bilateral relations in the diverse sectors of the economy i.e.
pharmaceutical, civil aviation (April 2023 direct flights), SMEs,
energy, real estate, oil & gas, agriculture, and last but not the
least joint ventures in sports, surgical instruments and textiles
with Pakistan and its private companies.
Uzbekistan's“systematic” and“supportive” policies of greater
regional connectivity have surpassed all the regional countries.
The trans-regional railway project
(Pakistan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan)” would be a“game changer” in the
context of greater regional connectivity and trade in the days to
come. Pakistan-Uzbekistan bilateral trade, economic, business, and
trade activities have been further increased because of its pure
but simple economic diplomacy.
There is an immense potential for enhancing trade in the field
of agriculture and agro-products, which needed to be tapped.
Maximum facilitation should be provided to the investors of all
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan to help set up their
businesses in the already established Special Economic Zones across
Pakistan.
There is huge scope for higher education cooperation through
joint degrees and student and faculty exchange programs. The
Virtual University of Pakistan is offering online education, which
is cost-effective for students of these countries.
Most recently, the 8th Session of the Pakistan-Uzbekistan
Inter-governmental Commission (IGC) on Trade-Economic and
Scientific-Technical Cooperation was held in Uzbekistan. It was
mutually agreed to extend cooperation in priority areas like
transport and logistics. Moreover, the growth of mutual trade,
investment, industrial cooperation, and banking was also discussed.
It was decided to further increase bilateral trade which reached
$240 million in 2022 (the highest among CIS). Both countries
mutually supported the adoption of concrete measures to accelerate
the practical implementation of the Agreement on Preferential Trade
and Diversification of Transport Corridors in order to create
prerequisites for increasing the volume of mutual trade.
An agreement was also inked to accelerate the progress of the
trans-Afghan railway construction project. Moreover, MOUs to
increase the volume of multimodal cargo transportation, and the
creation of terminals on the territories of both states for further
joint export of products to the markets of third countries were
also signed. Furthermore, the interbank partnership was also
discussed to implement the mechanism of SWAP operations between
central banks, and the development of correspondent banking
relations between the financial institutions of the two countries.
The closure of banking connections should be halted and immediately
restored.
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