Tariq Saeedi
Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov of Uzbekistan visited Afghanistan, 17-18 August 2024. It is the highest-level visit of a foreign head of government to Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power in 2021.
It is significant as both an event and a phenomenon.
The Event
The visit was successful by all means. The outcomes are impressive.
According to the Uzbek and Afghan media, 12 agreements worth $1.4 billion were signed in the investment sector, and 23 agreements worth $1.1 billion were signed in the trade sector in the presence of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Economic Deputy of the Prime Minister’s Office, and Uzbekistan’s prime minister, Abdulla Nigmatovich Aripov.
The total value of the signed documents was $2.5 billion.
The Uzbek-Afghan business forum, coinciding with the visit, included representatives from relevant ministries and agencies, industry associations, and over 500 business leaders from both countries.
The forum also featured the “Made in Uzbekistan” exhibition, aimed at boosting mutual trade between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan to $1 billion. The exhibition showcased products from 80 major Uzbek companies across various industries, including automotive, textiles, jewelry, food, electrical engineering, mining, and pharmaceuticals.
The exhibition included B2B and G2B meetings, allowing entrepreneurs to establish new business connections and discuss practical aspects of joint projects and trade agreements.
The Preferential Trade Agreement between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan is set to take effect on 1 October 2024. The agreement includes the elimination of import duties on 14 agreed-upon types of goods, offering additional advantages to exporters.
To boost the import of agricultural products from Afghanistan, the procedure for obtaining phytosanitary permits has been simplified.
As of 1 August, the Ayritom-Hairaton border post operates 24/7.
For visitors to the International Trade Center in Termez, a 15-day visa-free regime is being introduced, along with exemption from all taxes.
Additionally, the two countries have signed an agreement on mutual promotion and protection of investments to encourage Afghan businesses to operate in Uzbekistan.
The Phenomenon
The event was the high-level visit by Uzbekistan to Afghanistan and the phenomenon was the wide and deep interaction of Central Asia with Afghanistan.
An Uzbek official told nCa that the visit of Prime Minister Aripov is nothing out of ordinary. He said that Central Asia, including Uzbekistan has always engaged with Afghanistan regardless of who is in power there.
He said that it should be viewed as the fact that the region recognizes the people of Afghanistan.
Positive interaction of Central Asia with Afghanistan is actually a necessity. It becomes more so when we look at the prevailing situations around the world and the economic stress they are projecting toward the region.
The position of Central Asia was quite clear during the sixth consultative summit of the heads of state of the region on 9 August 2024 in Astana.
We are producing here some passages from the speeches of the presidents of the Central Asian countries at the summit to highlight their positions:
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan
We understand each other perfectly, and each of our meetings ends with a clear final document, on the basis of which we continue to work. We believe that, both from a political and practical point of view, there is no need to burden the created format with the establishment of add-ons.
At the current stage, against the background of the complexities of the global situation, the main and unconditional priority for the Central Asian States should remain the preservation of peace, harmony and stability. We are united in making our region prosperous, highly developed and deeply integrated into modern global relations, while preserving our identity, independence and the right to choose an internal and external development model. I am convinced that only under such conditions our states and peoples will be able to secure a decent and secure future.
The attempts to draw our region into some spheres of influence, especially into conflicts, should not be allowed to take place, and give grounds to doubt the independence and subjectivity of Central Asia as a geopolitical, economic, cultural and civilizational space with a thousand-year history. Our peoples have their own agenda: peace, good–neighborliness, brotherhood and cooperation.
Stability and tranquility along the perimeter of its external borders are an indispensable condition for maintaining the security of the region. I mean, first of all, our cooperation in the Afghanistan direction.
While respecting each of our countries’ position, I believe, nevertheless, that we, as Afghanistan’s neighbors, need to use the opportunities and signs of stabilization to develop a common positive, constructive and realistic line towards the current Afghanistan administration. In our opinion, the interests and aspirations of the Afghanistan people, their desire for lasting peace and creative national work to restore the economy and social sphere should be put at the forefront.
The Central Asian countries play a key role in this process. We can talk in practical terms about the integration of Afghanistan into international economic relations only through cooperation with us, the implementation of infrastructure and logistics projects. We have historical, spiritual, and family ties with Afghanistan. It is our common duty and responsibility to use them to help create a new, peaceful, stable Afghanistan.
If we talk about the transport segment, here we highlight routes through Central Asia from China to Europe and the Middle East.
Specifically, we are talking about the transit corridors China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan–Turkmenistan–Iran–Türkiye with access to Europe, as well as China–Tajikistan–Uzbekistan–Turkmenistan–Iran and further to the Middle East. We pay special attention to the cargo transportation route along the China–Kazakhstan–Turkmenistan–Iran–Persian Gulf line. In this regard, we see prospects for combining the resource, economic and transport capabilities of Central Asia, India and Pakistan, the connectivity of the two subcontinents and access to the World Ocean. It should be noted that the Central Asian countries have great potential for cooperation in the transport sector with Afghanistan. Today, our states are doing a lot to expand the transport and communication infrastructure towards Afghanistan.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan
Traditional trade and transport chains have been disrupted. We have become hostages of the sanctions policy, logistics costs have increased significantly, and inflationary pressure is growing. Opportunities in the global capital market are shrinking, protectionism is increasing and new barriers are emerging.
The well-being of the Central Asian countries largely depends on common efforts and willingness to cooperate closely.
There is the need for new drivers and models for the development of economic partnership in the long term.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan
It is important to maintain high dynamics of development in the Central Asian region in the current complex geopolitical and economic realities.
Today we are witnessing a dangerous erosion of the fundamental foundations of the system of international relations. In these conditions, the main task remains to preserve peace and stability in our region.
Overcoming modern challenges and threats is possible only through strengthening political dialogue and confidence-building measures between the regional nations.
We need to focus all efforts to ensure that Central Asia remains a space of security, cooperation and prosperity.
Kazakhstan considers the construction of the Trans-Afghan Railway, which opens access to the markets of South Asia, to be promising.
Kazakhstan is on the unwavering strategic course to strengthen regional partnership in every possible way and enhance the role of Central Asia on the world stage.
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There has lately been a remarkable alignment in the positions of Central Asian countries in their stance toward Afghanistan. There is the proactive engagement with Afghanistan.
There are several reasons for this, including:
- The need to maintain peace and stability in the region
- The recognition that a stable and prosperous Afghanistan can be a great economic partner for the region
- The desire to secure the territory of Afghanistan as a transit space for trade and commerce with South Asia and China
- The need for a mutually beneficial relationship to obtain the space for the Central Asian products in the Afghan markets and vice versa
Equally noteworthy is the fact that Afghanistan is still not economically stable. This makes the majority of the population vulnerable to all kinds of hardship. The economic outreach by Central Asia, therefore, is simultaneously pragmatic and humanitarian. /// nCa, 22 August 2024