Tajikistan to join Pakistan road link bypassing Afghanistan

Neo

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Tajikistan to join Pakistan road link bypassing Afghanistan
By Zafar Bhutta
February 24, 2017

5

Akbaital Pass, Tajikistan: PHOTO COURTESY: KAMRAN ON BIKE

ISLAMABAD: While Kabul is reluctant to finalise a transit trade agreement with Islamabad, Tajikistan is poised to join a separate initiative which will connect Pakistan to Central Asia, bypassing Afghanistan entirely.

Officials told The Express Tribune that Tajikistan’s request for inclusion into the Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement (QTTA) — a deal between China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan for facilitating transit traffic and trade — has been approved. The Central Asian state will now become a formal participant once its parliament approves the move, they said.

Tajikistan looks to promote trade in Pakistan

Inclusion in QTTA — which was signed in Islamabad in 1995 — will grant landlocked Tajikistan access to Pakistan’s ports, including Gwadar, without having to depend on Afghanistan. It will provide safe passage to traders from both Pakistan and Tajikistan. Trade between the two countries has risen steadily from $15 million in 2011 to $90 million in 2016, and Tajikistan wants to bring the volume up to $500 million.

Up till now, Pakistani traders have had to rely on the land route through Afghanistan to access Tajikistan and other Central Asian States. Pakistan and Afghanistan had been negotiating a transit trade agreement but Kabul’s insistence that India be included in the arrangement led to a deadlock in discussions. Due to tensions with India over unrest in Occupied Kashmir and Delhi’s attempts to implicate Islamabad in rebel attacks on military installations, Pakistan could not accommodate Kabul’s demand. But while Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani threatened to cut off Pakistan’s access to Central Asia if it did not include India in the transit deal, China revived QTTA to further tap the potential of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, officials said. QTTA provides Pakistan a gateway to Central Asia by using the Karakoram Highway — which links Gilgit-Baltistan to China’s Xinjiang region — as a transit corridor.

Tajikistan’s hydel power production – a model to follow

With Pakistan’s exports declining by over $4 billion over the last few years, it has looked to tap the potential of Central Asian and Russian markets. Kyrgyzstan has offered a route to Russia to Pakistani traders. At the same time, Pakistani ports provide landlocked Central Asian states the closest maritime facilities for trade. Currently, they rely on seaports in China, Turkey, Iran, Russia and the Baltic States.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2017.
 

Mikesingh

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And who's going to develop that road? China or Tajikistan?
 

Vikramaditya

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Is saying khuda is haram in Pakistan, it seems everyone from political part to media guy is saying allah. What is the difference man????
 

sthf

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Is saying khuda is haram in Pakistan, it seems everyone from political part to media guy is saying allah. What is the difference man????
Allah belongs to the pure people, original Muslims i.e. Arabs and by default Sunnis.

Khuda belongs to the infidel Iranians and by default Shias.
 

deepak ghanvatkar

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I believe its a conspiracy to pressure India from going all out against CPEC which passes through Gilgit and Kashmir which is integral part of India and illegally held by Pakistan...
 

Bornubus

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Is saying khuda is haram in Pakistan, it seems everyone from political part to media guy is saying allah. What is the difference man????
Khuda has nothing to do with Islam these Persian words predates Islam. Iranian are self respecting people who look down on Arab/Turks names and their Culture and still have pre Islamic Persian Names and Culture.


Unlike Indian, Paki and Bangladeshi Muslaman who are wannabe Arabs.
 

pringles

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Tajikistan to join Pakistan road link bypassing Afghanistan
By Zafar Bhutta
February 24, 2017

5

Akbaital Pass, Tajikistan: PHOTO COURTESY: KAMRAN ON BIKE

ISLAMABAD: While Kabul is reluctant to finalise a transit trade agreement with Islamabad, Tajikistan is poised to join a separate initiative which will connect Pakistan to Central Asia, bypassing Afghanistan entirely.

Officials told The Express Tribune that Tajikistan’s request for inclusion into the Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement (QTTA) — a deal between China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan for facilitating transit traffic and trade — has been approved. The Central Asian state will now become a formal participant once its parliament approves the move, they said.

Tajikistan looks to promote trade in Pakistan

Inclusion in QTTA — which was signed in Islamabad in 1995 — will grant landlocked Tajikistan access to Pakistan’s ports, including Gwadar, without having to depend on Afghanistan. It will provide safe passage to traders from both Pakistan and Tajikistan. Trade between the two countries has risen steadily from $15 million in 2011 to $90 million in 2016, and Tajikistan wants to bring the volume up to $500 million.

Up till now, Pakistani traders have had to rely on the land route through Afghanistan to access Tajikistan and other Central Asian States. Pakistan and Afghanistan had been negotiating a transit trade agreement but Kabul’s insistence that India be included in the arrangement led to a deadlock in discussions. Due to tensions with India over unrest in Occupied Kashmir and Delhi’s attempts to implicate Islamabad in rebel attacks on military installations, Pakistan could not accommodate Kabul’s demand. But while Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani threatened to cut off Pakistan’s access to Central Asia if it did not include India in the transit deal, China revived QTTA to further tap the potential of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, officials said. QTTA provides Pakistan a gateway to Central Asia by using the Karakoram Highway — which links Gilgit-Baltistan to China’s Xinjiang region — as a transit corridor.

Tajikistan’s hydel power production – a model to follow

With Pakistan’s exports declining by over $4 billion over the last few years, it has looked to tap the potential of Central Asian and Russian markets. Kyrgyzstan has offered a route to Russia to Pakistani traders. At the same time, Pakistani ports provide landlocked Central Asian states the closest maritime facilities for trade. Currently, they rely on seaports in China, Turkey, Iran, Russia and the Baltic States.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2017.
I don't mean to play spoilsport but this is a matter of concern for India. We created Chabar to circumvent Gwadar and access central asia via Afghanistan, now Pakistan has made sure Tajikistan is pulled out of that arrangement.
 

Neo

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Is saying khuda is haram in Pakistan, it seems everyone from political part to media guy is saying allah. What is the difference man????
How do you come by this? Khuda is Persian for "Lord" or "God", its a title whereas Allah is the most powerful and most favored of 99 names for our God.

Khuda is commonly used in Urdu, one of our parting greeting is Khuda Hafiz or the Lord may be your guardian. Aye khuda, ya khudaya meaning omg can be heard on every tongue in Pakistan. Its also used in poetry, more often then Allah.
 

Neo

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I don't mean to play spoilsport but this is a matter of concern for India. We created Chabar to circumvent Gwadar and access central asia via Afghanistan, now Pakistan has made sure Tajikistan is pulled out of that arrangement.
I beg to differ, it shouldn't be a matter of concern for India if connectivity is your real objective and you can access CAR sans Tajikistan as both Iran and Afghanistan provide easy access to all of central Asia and Russia via Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Politically its a blow indeed because Pakistan can no longer be blackmailed by Afghanistan for transit. Kabul recently had threatened to deny transit to CAR unless Pakistan opens Wagah for Indian exports to Afghanistan. The threat is now nullified.

Chahbahar seems to be a lost case already as a decade since the deal was struck with India there's been little progress. India's $150 million grant has been pending with Exim bank for 8 months now and Trump is launching a whole new package of sanctions against Iran. In the mean time Indian trade with Iran has declined. I don't see any progress of significance in the following years. Iran might even opt to bring China in to develop the port.
 

vinuzap

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pakistanis are pathological liers atleast chamcha of ISPR and army :

it was pakistan who blackmailed afghanistan for long(defacto ruling in 90 with taliban but what it achieved except for drug dealing and carnage ) and now its difficult as afghans are progressing

it was pakistan who jeopardized india iran gas line and later putting obstance for trade for afghan- india trade

as for these lollypop there are nothing new , forget Chahbahar infact chinese are busy milking them and want to connect all these with china , mynmar india corridor and also india has millitary base in Farkhor tajikistan

even ghani is screwing them nicely :

http://www.firstpost.com/world/take...n-change-narrative-in-south-asia-2219246.html



Here is a bit of hard news that sums up the tone and tenor of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s just-concluded India visit (27-29 April) and what concrete deliverables came India’s way. The Ghani administration has bluntly told Pakistan that Afghanistan can help Pakistan get access to Tajikistan if Pakistan helps India to access Afghanistan.

×
This is huge! Ghani himself conveyed this to his Indian interlocutors during his formal talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.


Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in a file photo. AFP

This alone shows how greatly successful Ghani’s India visit has been though he has come to India after China, Pakistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Ghani's India visit has to be gauged from only one perspective: its strategic component and the delivery or the lack of it on this point.


Ghani’s "Take Tajikistan from us but give Afghanistan to India" approach with Pakistan in terms of access is bone dry diplomacy and hits the nail on the head without any ado or prologues or prevarications.

When he took over as the new president of Afghanistan in September last from Hamid Karzai, the veteran former president of 14 years, Ghani was looked upon with suspicion and the biggest concern in the Indian strategic establishment was how well disposed he would be for India. But the latest Tajikistan twist to the India-Pakistan Afghanistan triangle tale has left none in doubt about his administration’s intentions for India.

The idea is this: it is all about connectivity. Ghani’s India visit too was deeply focused on connectivity, just as the India-Pakistan-Afghanistan triangle is all about connectivity.

What Pakistan needs to understand is that it cannot aspire for northern connectivity and hope to get Afghanistan’s help in getting access to Tajikistan without making important concessions on its southern connectivity and allowing India access to Afghanistan.

India has been urging Pakistan to allow transit rights for transporting Indian goods to Afghanistan but Pakistan has consistently blocked Indian efforts as it just cannot tolerate the very thought of India and Afghanistan coming together.

Prime Minister Modi himself dropped a hint of connectivity being the top most theme in his talks with President Ghani when he remarked thus in his media statement with Ghani by his side: "We are ready to welcome Afghan trucks at the ICP (Indian check post) Attari."

Now consider PM Modi's expanded remark to get a clearer picture: "President Ghani shared his impressive vision for Afghanistan's prosperity, based on its talent, resources and location. We believe that Afghanistan's direct surface link to India and the rest of South Asia, and increased connectivity to sea, could turn Afghanistan into a hub that connects Asia's diverse regions and beyond.

"We are ready to welcome Afghan trucks at the ICP Attari. We are also prepared to join the successor agreement to Afghan Pakistan Trade and Transit Agreement. This will re-establish one of the oldest trading routes of South Asia. I also reaffirmed my commitment to take the Chahbahar Port project in Iran forward. We will also quickly conclude a bilateral Motor Vehicles Agreement," he said.

“We will expand our development partnership, which includes infrastructure, agriculture, connectivity, human resource development, community projects and humanitarian assistance. We will explore new trade and investment opportunities.”

Pakistan is dead serious about reaching out to Tajikistan which it cannot do without the help of Afghanistan. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan have almost finalised draft of a landmark trilateral transit agreement among the three countries, hitherto known by different names. Afghanistan is calling it APTTTA or Afghanistan-Pakistan-Tajikistan Trilateral Transit Trade Agreement while Pakistan called it APTTTTA when it sent in January this year its final draft proposal to Afghan and Tajik governments and sought their views.

It remains to be seen if Pakistan will be ready to give southern connectivity to gain northern connectivity. The "Take Tajikistan but give Afghanistan" has changed the narrative in the South Asian context. But it is definitely a giant leap forward in India-Afghanistan bilateral relations.
 

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after few days tajikstan will say " what the hell who spread Rumours" " pakistannnnnnnnn baaj aah ja"
 

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India’s Chabahar port plan runs into Iran loan application hurdle
India’s ambitious plan to develop Chabahar port in Iran has hit yet another snag—over what is being seen as an inordinate delay on the part of Iran to seek a $150 million loan from India.

Eight months have passed since the loan agreement was signed for the port’s development, but the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) is still awaiting completion of an application from the Port and Maritime Organization of Iran with instructions to disburse the amount. According to the agreement, the contract will be activated from the day that the loanhas been disbursed.

This comes in the backdrop of strains developing in US-Iran relations after the recent imposition of US sanctions on the West Asian country over its missile programme.
https://www.google.co.in/amp/www.li...mp&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=googleamp
 

datguy79

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Pakistani posters are stuck in the false equivalency paradigm. The route is infeasible because of a) the weather in the winter, b) China and Tajikistan imposing a higher tax on the cargo, c) higher cost of transport/longer journey since most of the Tajik population live on the other side of the country, and d) Tajikistan is itself an insignificant market.

Personally this is a good omen since Afghanistan doesn't rely on Pakistan anymore and the less Pakistani trucks, the better. Let them go via this route. It will hit the average trader hardest since every truck will be thousands of dollars more expensive.
 

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