Lukman Patel, 31, of Homeway Road in Leicester, also appeared in court on Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to possession of an offensive weapon and racially aggravated harassment/alarm/distress…reports Asian Lite News
Home Secretary Suella Braverman met the police in Leicester to discuss and take stock of the recent communal unrest in the English city, the media reported.
In a statement on Thursday, a Leicestershire Police spokesperson said: “I can confirm the Home Secretary visited Leicester today and was briefed by Temporary Chief Constable Rob Nixon and other senior officers.
“We won’t be providing any further detail in relation to the meeting.”
According to the BBC, Braverman has been in regular contact with the chief constable, and that she visited to receive further updates on the disorder, and to thank police officers for their response.
Since the unrest first erupted on August 28 following an India-Pakistan cricket match, the police have arrested 47 people amid tensions involving mainly young men from sections of the Muslim and Hindu communities.
Major disorder broke out on the evening of September 17 following an earlier protest.
Meanwhile, a meeting of community leaders, councillors and local police on Wednesday evening decided upon a review to take place into recent unrest.
Speaking to the BBC, Leicester Mayor Peter Soulsby said on Thursday: “Last night’s meeting was very constructive and everyone there was determined to ensure that the recent disorder does not spoil relations in our city.
“My intention is to have a review of what led up to the events at the weekend, and also to seek some independent thoughts on how we all — council, police and communities — can learn from this, and what we can do at a local level to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
However, an independent body is yet to be appointed to oversee the review. Three people have been charged so far in relation to the disorder.
Amos Noronha, 20, of Illingworth Road in Leicester, appeared in court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon and was jailed for 10 months, the BBC reported.
Adam Yusuf, 21, of Bruin Street in Leicester, appeared in court on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article and was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.
Lukman Patel, 31, of Homeway Road in Leicester, also appeared in court on Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to possession of an offensive weapon and racially aggravated harassment/alarm/distress.
He is expected to stand trial on November 11.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has described the events in Leicester and Smethwick as “ugly” and called for solidarity.
“British Hindus and British Muslims have far more in common than that which divides us, and we should be eternally on our guard against extremist forces who seek to stoke up tensions between our communities for their own selfish ends,” he said.
Police have encouraged people to prepare for Navratri and Diwali as normal, and said a “visible and strengthened police presence will be there for all communities”.
A delegation of ten representatives of different GHRD teams arrived in Geneva on Monday. On Tuesday, GHRD hosted the panel discussion “Silent Genocide” at the Novotel Centre Geneva…reports Asian Lite News
Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) delegation in Geneva raised the issue of human rights violations in Pakistan mainly focused on enforced disappearances and genocide including women’s rights violations.
The aim was to report on the 51st Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, as well as protests surrounding the session.
A delegation of ten representatives of different GHRD teams arrived in Geneva on Monday. On Tuesday, GHRD hosted the panel discussion “Silent Genocide” at the Novotel Centre Geneva.
The panel consisted of three panellists, all specialists in the matter. Dr. Rubina Greenwood is the President and Founder of the International Sindhi Women’s Organization (ISWO) and Chairperson of the World Sindhi Congress (WSC).
Her 20+ years of human rights advocacy focus on human rights issues in Pakistan and Sindh. Dhreen Abdullah is a young Balochistan activist and member of the Baloch National Movement. As a special panelist, Dr. Naseer Dashti joined to share his view on genocide and Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan.
The event started with the opening words of the Chairman of GHRD, Sital. He expressed his gratitude to all those coming, both online and in person and for the power to unite and align with each other to make a change in the world.
He expressed the power of younger generations and the importance of education, as with education there will be a change in society.
Sital also paid special tribute to a GHRD colleague Marc Wortman who died suddenly in August 2022. Marc Wortmann was remembered as a motivated and passionate man, eager to fight for human rights and constantly empower others.
GHRD will continue their work with the values of Marc Wortmann as motivation, Sital said. Lina Borchardt, the director of GHRD, took the opportunity to highlight the work of GHRD and the four pillar structure the organization is based on: Education, Empowerment, Advocacy and Human Rights Monitoring.
Especially highlighted was the project Global Human Rights TV, the online media platform founded by GHRD to report on human rights violations worldwide. The audience was guided through the debate by the moderator of the day, Alessandro Cosmo, the Vice Director of GHRD.
The followers of GHRD were able to follow the event on various social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin. On both Instagram and YouTube the followers were able to join the event via livestream.
After providing the definition of Genocide, the first question was raised and the panel discussion was started to determine the situation in Pakistan.
Dr. Rubina Greenwood elaborated on the case of Sindhi and noted that it is not proven or officially declared a Genocide by the United Nations, but it fulfils all criteria stated in the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court.
She described how seventy per cent of the population lives under the poverty line even though it is one of the wealthiest areas worldwide considering the resources. The most vulnerable group in her perspective are women and children in Sindh.
Dhreen Abdullah also underlined these statements by raising the issue of women’s rights in Balochistan and in Sindh. She shared her own story of oppression by the military and a time in her life when she was not allowed to speak her mother tongue and was forced to speak Urdu.
All panellists agreed on one issue, being that genocide is never truly silent. “There are too many personal stories and outcries of injustice to call it “silent”. Eliminating a country, a nation, a religion, a language goes beyond the written definition of genocide including physical violence and murder,” a GHRD press release read.
The panel agreed that without religion, cultures and languages, a nation is without soul. One important take away, especially for the Women’s Rights delegation of GHRD, is the concerning position of women and girls in Pakistan.
“Women are most affected by enforced disappearance and genocide, they often need to be accompanied by a man in order to survive. Basic Hygiene Products are not a given and there is a clear lack of education. Women are not only being oppressed by their significant others, but by fathers, sons, religious leaders and society as a whole,” it added.
The event was rounded up by a networking session, giving the audience the opportunity to connect with the GHRD delegation and the panel. (ANI)
Reflecting on his personal journey, Sadiq Khan, born to a British-Pakistani family in South London, wrote, “My grandparents were from India…reports Asian Lite News
London mayor Sadiq Khan appealed to Hindu and Muslim communities to “not allow the politics of the sub-continent to spill over” into the UK.
“We should be eternally on our guard against extremist forces who seek to stoke up tensions between our communities for their own selfish ends. Everyone in the UK and around the world should have the right to live in peace and to practice their religion without fear or threats,” the London mayor said.
The appeal came after a spate of violent clashes between Hindu and Muslim communities in the eastern England city of Leicester following an India-Pakistan cricket match.
Sadiq Khan urged against letting “current or past tensions, and the wider politics of the region, be used as a pretext to stir up trouble on our streets”. “British Muslims and British Hindus should always be allies, not adversaries,” he added.
Reflecting on his personal journey, Sadiq Khan, born to a British-Pakistani family in South London, wrote, “My grandparents were from India. My parents from Pakistan. I was born and raised in London and am proud to call Britain my home. But like many Londoners who can trace their family history to different parts of the world, I feel a strong connection with my heritage, which means both India and Pakistan are dear to me and hold a special place in my heart.”
People have asked Deputy Commissioner of Kohlu to take action against the said officers, saying that the scope of the protest would be widened otherwise…reports Asian Lite News
Balochistan residents have accused the Pakistan authorities of corruption in the distribution of flood relief materials, local media reported.
A number of protestors gathered outside the Tehsildar’s office and raised slogans against the Pakistan government. They alleged that the Tehsildar Jalal Murri in connivance with Naib Tehsildar Risaldar Aslam Murri has distributed items to his close associates and influential people instead of the flood-affected families, local media reported.
The protestors said that they were deprived of the government relief and assistance due to the Tehsildar’s actions. They further said that during the ration distribution, when they went to the authorities for ration, the authorities refused and told them to ask assistance from people whomever they have voted.
Moreover, the Tehsildar threatened the residents and told them no one can harm him, the protestors alleged.
People have asked Deputy Commissioner of Kohlu to take action against the said officers, saying that the scope of the protest would be widened otherwise, local media reported.
Earlier, Sabir Hussain, Coordinator to Chief Minister of Gilgit Baltistan accused the Hunza Deputy Commissioner (DC) of stealing two trucks worth of relief items sent by the foreign affairs office of Xinjiang, China, local media reported.
Sabir alleged that Hunza DC had misappropriated trucks loaded with relief items sent from the Chinese foreign affair office of Xinjiang after they crossed the Sost Pakistan-China border. He claimed that Hunza DC took away the relief trucks in connivance with the DC Customs at the border.
The relief items were sent by the Xinjiang office of Chinese foreign affairs at the request of the acting governor of Gilgit-Baltistan, Syed Amjad Ali Zaidi, amid the ongoing devastating floods situation, local media reports said.
Sabir attached the documents from the Foreign Affairs Office of China and invoices of the consignment as proof of the accusation of corruption.
Due to rampant corruption by the Pakistan province administrations, locals continue to suffer in times when they need the most help amid the devastating floods.
This has created an outrage as thousands of people in far-flung areas are still waiting for help from the govt and welfare groups but the administration is busy pleasing their associates and influential people.
The Monsoon rains have claimed more than a thousand lives across Pakistan since June and unleashed powerful floods that have washed away swathes of vital crops and damaged or destroyed more than a million homes.
Record monsoons and heavy floods in Pakistan have given rise to hunger and various illnesses which have affected 33 million people and are estimated to have caused USD 30 billion in damage. (ANI)
Notably, China’s economy is cooling partly due to new constraints and partly change in development strategy…reports Asian Lite News
In a bid to stabilize Bejing’s worsening economy, China at the SCO summit in Samarkand seems to propagate its developmental goals to convince the global leaders and the new list of countries it has targeted for its so-called trade agreements.
On the sidelines of the SCO meeting, Xi Jinping made several points, poising to increase the confidence among the targeted countries where China has either invested or planning to invest through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects.
Notably, China’s economy is cooling partly due to new constraints and partly change in development strategy.
Beijing made a point to meet the heads of all the central Asian states attending the meeting and trying to convince them of his country’s genuine interest in the development of their nations, Financial Post reported.
China also sought to sell certain images, as per Financial Post. One was that the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone has opened 17 international freight train routes to Dushanbe in Tajikistan and Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe Bridge, the Kazakhstan-China pipeline, the China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Base, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan International Highway, CPEC projects.
According to Finacial Post, China tried to lure several countries by staying that Beijing will have substantially increased its total R&D spending, attracted more top scientists, boasted a large number of scientists and technologists in strategically important and core technological fields, top-level sci-tech leaders and innovation teams by 2025.
Moreover, by 2030, China will be significantly more attractive to global talent, boast some frontrunners in main sci-tech fields and pioneers in emerging frontier and interdisciplinary areas. By 2035, the country will have competitive advantages in talent competition in many areas, and its strategic sci-tech strength and high-caliber talent teams will be among the strongest in the world, it added further.
According to reports, these measures are expected to convince countries to allow their citizens, whether employees or students, to visit China for research or educational purposes.
The media reports insist that the Chinese government, right from the top, is aware of preparing China for greater global interaction in the future. (ANI)
S&P Global Market Intelligence projects China’s real GDP growth to slow from 8.1 per cent in 2021 to 3.3 per cent in 2022 before picking up to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 5.5 per cent in 2025…reports Asian Lite News
S&P Global Market Intelligence on Thursday said mainland China’s economy is expanding again after a setback in the second quarter due to Covid-19 lockdowns while the global economic outlook for 2023 has dimmed as financial conditions deteriorated.
In terms of mainland China, the analysis of S&P Global Market Intelligence explained industrial production of People’s Republic of China (PRC) rose 4.2 per cent year-on-year in August, while services output increased just 1.8 per cent year-on-year. Growth will remain constrained by the government’s dynamic zero-Covid policies, a deep property sector recession and weakening export demand.
S&P Global Market Intelligence projects China’s real GDP growth to slow from 8.1 per cent in 2021 to 3.3 per cent in 2022 before picking up to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 5.5 per cent in 2025.
S&P Global Market Intelligence now projects global real GDP growth to slow from 5.8 per cent in 2021 to 2.8 per cent in 2022 and 2 per cent in 2023. The 2023 growth rate is revised down 0.3 percentage point from last month’s forecast, reflecting weaker outlooks for the world’s largest economies — the eurozone, mainland China, Japan, and US.
Elaborating on the global slowdown, Sara Johnson, executive director, economic research, S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: “Tightening financial conditions will lead to a further slowdown in global economic growth, putting expansions in vulnerable regions at risk and deepening anticipated recessions in Europe. The combination of subpar economic growth, rising unemployment, and improving supply chain conditions will cause inflation to subside over the next two years.”
While S&P Global Market Intelligence on US economy said that it was facing an extended period of tepid growth and rising unemployment. Despite a slight easing since June, consumer price inflation remained as high as 8.3 per cent year-on-year in August while central bank Federal Reserve is determined to bring back inflation back to its 2 per cent target. (ANI)
This package of support takes the UK’s total humanitarian, health and nutrition funding for Somalia this financial year up to £52.8million…reports Asian Lite News
The UK Development Minister Vicky Ford has announced a new package of support for people affected by the worst drought in decades in the Horn of Africa.
Speaking at an event on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Horn of Africa at the UN General Assembly in New York, Ford announced £22.8 million to enable the UN and our NGO partners to continue lifesaving assistance through cash support; access to water and sanitation services; and the delivery of highly specialised health and nutrition treatment.
Ford called on the international community to act now to avert disaster, as concerns rise that a projected famine in Somalia could be worse than in 2011, when a quarter of a million people lost their lives.
Minister Ford said, ‘The drought in the Horn of Africa is one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Almost half of Somalia’s population is in dire need of help – with 300,000 people forecast to be in famine by October if assistance is not provided immediately.
The UK is playing a leading role in the international response to this crisis. We are providing vital life-saving food security, health, nutrition and water support to half a million people across Somalia, backed up by the funding announced today.
If we are to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic drought which saw a quarter of million people die in Somalia a decade ago, the international community must act now.
This package of support takes the UK’s total humanitarian, health and nutrition funding for Somalia this financial year up to £52.8million.
The UK has allocated a total of £156 million in humanitarian support for crises in East Africa this financial year’.
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has drawn heavy criticism across the world for a decree banning girls from schools above grade six….reports Asian Lite News
As human rights violations continue to take place in Afghanistan, Britain’s Human Rights Ambassador, Rita French condemned the suppression of women in Afghanistan and said that the condition for women and girls in the country is deteriorating and the community is subjected to grave oppression.
She stated that Afghan women had been severely restricted from enjoying their human rights, according to Khaama Press.
“Women in Afghanistan are confined to their houses and are the only people in the world who are not allowed to attend secondary school,” French said, voicing concerns about Afghan women.
“The UK will continue strongly championing the voices of Afghan women and girls and continue to provide life-saving support and provide space for Afghan women’s voices,” French added, Khaama Press reported.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a recent report, outlining the human rights situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
The report summarized UNAMA’s findings with regards to the protection of civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, fundamental freedoms and the situation in places of detention, according to Khaama Press.
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has drawn heavy criticism across the world for a decree banning girls from schools above grade six.
The plight of Afghan women has continued to be deplorable in the country. Contrary to the Taliban’s claims, girls were stopped from going to school beyond a sixth grade on March 23 and a decree against the women’s dress code was issued after a month. There are restrictions on movement, education and freedom of expression of women posing a threat to their survival.
Around 80 per cent of women working in the media have lost their jobs, and almost 18 million women in the country are struggling for health, education and social rights. (ANI)
On the death anniversary of former Afghan President, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Dostum in the meeting that Khalili is colluding with Pakistan as he continues to choose silence on Taliban’s actions….reports Asian Lite News
Abdul Rashid Dostum, a political figure and leader of the Uzbek community in Afghanistan accused Mohammad Karim Khalili, a Hazara leader of having secret ties with Pakistan, media reports said.
Dostum made the claims in an online meeting which saw the presence of anti-Talibani figures. He criticized the absence of Mohammad Karim Khalili in the meeting and accused him of having secret ties with Pakistan, reported Khaama Press.
On the death anniversary of former Afghan President, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Dostum in the meeting that Khalili is colluding with Pakistan as he continues to choose silence on Taliban’s actions.
He further said that Khalili has received money from Pakistan to stay ‘silent’ against the Taliban. Reacting to Dostum’s remarks, Mohammad Karim Khalili burst out in anger and asked the Uzbek leader to apologize for his words.
On his social media account, Khalili sai that his political party believes that war and violence is not the solution for Afghanistan’s crisis and that the country needs to switch from a centralized system to a fully decentralized administration system through negotiations, reported Khaama Press.
Since seizing control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has been the country’s de facto authority.
The UN has called upon the Taliban to reverse the slew of measures they have introduced restricting Afghan women and girls’ enjoyment of their basic rights and freedoms.
“The window of opportunity may be narrowing, but we urge them to take concrete steps – such as actively enabling girls to return to high school – that can lift Afghanistan up and give hope to its people,” a UNAMA statement read.
Various rights group is calling on the Taliban to implement major policy changes and measures to uphold the rights of women and girls. Despite initial public commitments to uphold the rights of women and girls, the Taliban introduced policies of systematic discrimination that violate their rights.
Women and girls across Afghanistan reacted to this crackdown with a wave of protests. In response, the Taliban targeted protesters with harassment and abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and physical and psychological torture. (ANI)
In the context of emerging connectivity corridors, Iran emerges as a pivot that will link Caucasus and Russia as well as land-locked Afghanistan and Central Asia to India, writes Sankalp Gurjar
Two recent developments have brought the strategic importance of Iran into India’s foreign policy calculus. As per reports, Iran and India are close to finalizing the long-term arrangements for operating the Chabahar port.
Secondly, Iran became a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) whose Summit was held at Samarkand in Uzbekistan last week. The likely conclusion of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers will only underscore the growing significance of Iran to the geopolitics of Eurasia, Persian Gulf region and of India.
Iran’s pivotal geographical location and the probable connectivity links that it can offer is one of the most important assets. Iranian ports like Bandar Abbas and Chabahar are key transit points for the trade corridors connecting India and the Indian Ocean with the Inner Asia.
The International North South Transit Corridor (INSTC) which has been in the strategic discourse for almost two decades, without much progress, has suddenly come alive with the Russia-Ukraine War. Recently, a trial for the INSTC route was successfully undertaken. Two 40-foot containers were shipped from St Petersburg in Russia for India via land as well as maritime components of the INSTC coming into play. The containers came via Southern Russia, Caspian Sea and Iran to India.
The port of Bandar Abbas is a key connecting node for the INSTC, which will link India’s West Coast to Russia via transport corridors passing through Iran, Caucasus, and the Caspian Sea region. Sometimes, it is pitched as the alternative route bypassing the Suez Canal that will also save time. With the Western attempts to isolate Russia and impose sanctions, the critical role of corridors like the INSTC can’t be undermined.
The port of Chabahar was being developed as an entry point for India’s outreach to Central Asia and Afghanistan. India has already shipped food and medicines to Afghanistan via the Chabahar route. The capture of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan changed the strategic dynamics regarding Chabahar. However, the port is back in the discussions and as India stages a comeback in Afghanistan, the role of Chabahar is likely to increase even further. Chabahar will link southern Afghanistan to India and will perhaps be useful to reach out to the factions within the Taliban that are influential in the region around Kandahar.
In this context of emerging connectivity corridors, Iran emerges as a pivot that will link Caucasus and Russia as well as land-locked Afghanistan and Central Asia to India. Taken together, there could be two major arteries of the connectivity corridors passing through Iran that will form the “V” shaped transport links: one will reach Afghanistan and Central Asian states while the other will reach the Caucasus and Black Sea region. Iran is a connecting point of the “V” on which both corridors will come together. The growing trade amongst the countries located along these corridors will open up opportunities for developing infrastructure as well as deepening strategic and economic ties. India would be able to leverage the opportunities not just to trade but to build infrastructure along both these axes.
Iran’s membership in the SCO will add further boost to these transport corridors. The role of Iran is critical as a key node for connectivity and for the evolution of regional security structures in the context of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Any solution to the Afghan problem cannot exclude Iran. Moreover, the Iranian membership would add further weight to the SCO as the geography of regional grouping would then spread from the icy Arctic in the north, Black and Caspian Seas to the west, Indian Ocean to the south and Pacific to the east. With Iran’s entry into the SCO, all major Eurasian powers would be part of the grouping.
In this evolving geopolitics, India has to find ways to deepen ties with Iran which have been put in the cold storage since the launch of “maximum pressure” campaign by the Trump administration in 2018-19. Iran has already asked India to purchase oil by using the same methods as it is using for buying Russian oil. The incoming Iranian oil will help in ensuring India’s energy security and easing the pressure of rising oil prices which in turn may help in bringing down the domestic inflation as well.
Thus, Iran is critical for India’s strategic, economic and energy interests. The meeting between PM Modi and Iranian President Raisi on the sidelines of the SCO summit is a good start. It is time to re-engage and bring pivotal Iran back into India’s foreign policy fold.
Central Asia rediscovers Chabahar
Earlier this year when Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Tashkent for the meeting of foreign ministers of the states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), he pitched for Uzbekistan’s participation in the Chabahar port. His counterpart from Pakistan, on the other hand, pitched for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
For landlocked countries of Central Asia, connectivity is the greatest priority, both in economic and strategic terms. For double landlocked countries like Uzbekistan, it assumes even greater salience. And the shortest route to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and to South Asia and further afield is through Af-Pak. That is why Central Asian countries have been expending special effort for integrating Afghanistan in their regional connectivity plans and by extension in their foreign policy. This policy has been followed regardless of the government in power in the war-torn country. In 2021 Uzbekistan organised a grand connectivity conference where President Ashraf Ghani was one of the participants, as well as then Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan who batted for the Central Asian countries too. And this year again it organised an international conference on Afghanistan, where the Taliban were the representatives, signaling Tashkent’s willingness to do business with whoever was in power.
Afghanistan’s geography was the prime reason for Central Asian countries’ decision to welcome the Taliban in Kabul a year ago, with the exception of Tajikistan. Afghanistan’s geostrategic location as the roundabout connecting South and Central Asia makes its territory a highly coveted transit route for landlocked states of Central Asia in order to access the markets and resources of South Asia and perhaps even further. Transit passage through Afghanistan provides the shortest route. To that end a number of mega regional projects like CASA 1000 – the project for providing power from Central Asia to South Asia, and TAPI – the Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India gas pipeline was conceived with the active support and encouragement of major powers like the US.
To that end Uzbekistan has been constructing the Termez – Mazar-i-Sharif – Kabul – Peshawar railway, and also teamed up with Iran to use the Chabahar Port. At the connectivity conference last year, Uzbekistan also became part of the South Asia- Central Asia QUAD along with the US, Afghanistan, and Pakistan for “Regional Support for Afghanistan-Peace Process and Post Settlement”, “in principle to establish a new quadrilateral diplomatic platform focused on enhancing regional connectivity”. To that end too Turkmenistan has been pursuing the TAPI pipeline which would take Turkmen gas to energy starved Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, while diversifying Turkmenistan’s export market, dependent almost entirely currently on China.
For this very reason in 2016 Turkmenistan opened a railway link to Afghanistan. On the Turkmen part the link terminated at the Ymamnazar customs control point where Turkmenistan has built an oil product terminal with an annual capacity of 540,000 tonnes, and on the Afghan side, the link went up to the Aqina dry port in the Faryab province. In January 2021 Afghanistan and Turkmenistan inaugurated three major energy projects aimed at bolstering bilateral and regional ties. One was a 153 km long power transmission line which was part of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) route project to export and import of electric power between the three countries. The second was a fiber optic project aimed at providing internet to users in Afghanistan’s Herat and surrounding provinces and the third was a rail link between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
In the same vein in March this year the Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev paid a state visit to Pakistan – his first ever visit to the country after taking charge in Tashkent in 2016. Both countries agreed to develop and expand their strategic collaboration in all sectors and to sign a strategic partnership treaty but at the heart of the meeting was trade and investment, and therefore connectivity. For Uzbekistan’s vast resources and search for markets from its landlocked geography, Pakistan provides the shortest route to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea and markets in Asia and Africa.
Nevertheless, the ongoing turmoil in the region has put a spanner in the plans of the landlocked Central Asian states. In Afghanistan, turmoil continues even after the Taliban’s takeover as seen in the spate of violence fomented both by the Taliban against its civilian population, as well as in the attacks by the ISIS-KP; and in Pakistan, particularly in its Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Balochistan province through which all trade routes from Uzbekistan via Afghanistan have to transit and where the Gwadar port is located. Recently in August Reuters reported that the $1.2 billion Western backed CASA 1000 project – meant to connect Central Asia to South Asia through a power line, had been suspended in Afghanistan due to ongoing turmoil.
Though Af-Pak provides the shortest routes, geopolitical realities have forced these states to look elsewhere. And the most obvious transit points come through Iranian ports – in particular the Chabahar port which India is developing; and the multi-modal International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) which connects Russia through Iran’s Bandar Abbas port with India. On July 7th, 2022, Russian company RZD Logistics successfully completed its first transport of goods to India via the INSTC. This has further given a fillip to the landlocked Central Asian states that of the two routes, one via Afghanistan and the other via Iran, the latter is currently more feasible and sustainable given the relative stability of the latter. The importance of Chabahar where India is developing the Shahi Beheshti terminal can be gauged from the fact that it was exempted from the slew of sanctions that the Donald Trump administration had slapped on Iran. Initially important for India’s connectivity to Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan, it has become an important gateway for India to access Central Asian markets and resources without transiting Pakistani territory, given Pakistan’s obduracy in refusing to grant India transit rights through its territory.
In 2021 External Affairs Minister pitched for connecting the INSTC to Chabahar port for obvious logistical soundness. He also proposed including Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in the INSTC to form its “eastern corridor”.
In 2020, Uzbekistan participated in the first trilateral working group together with India and Iran in discussing joint use of the Chabahar port. While simultaneously it has been backing routes through Pakistan, its more recent discussions with Indian deputy NSA Vikram Misri in Tashkent hinged on the sober realization that trade through Chabahar port was more realistic for the time being. In July India and Uzbekistan agreed to do a pilot container cargo shipment from Tashkent to India, using the multimodal route via Iran’s Chabahar Port. This was agreed at a meeting between Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and minister of investment & foreign trade, Jamshid Khodjaev. “Both India & Uzbekistan agreed that this new vista may unlock future possibilities of a Trans Caspian Multi Modal Transit Corridor between the Central Asia and South Asia regions,” a ministry of ports, shipping, and waterways document said.
Similarly, Afghanistan’s other Central Asian neighbour Turkmenistan which has expended significant effort in cultivating relations with Afghanistan, now understands that joining the INSTC will serve it better. Also bordering Iran, Turkmenistan had not been part of the INSTC. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 2015 visit to Ashkhabad had invited the gas rich but cash strapped country to join the INSTC. Last month in August, following an international conference on connectivity of landlocked countries in Turkmenistan, the country announced that it was going to join the India-Iran-Russia founded INSTC. Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov stated on August 19 that “Today Turkmenistan began the process of joining this agreement at a briefing following the international conference of landlocked countries.
Adding grist to the mill has been the Ukraine crisis and the sanctions slapped on Russia by the Western countries. Most Central Asian countries remain dependent on transit routes through the Russian Federation, and the Ukraine conflict has necessitated search for alternate routes. In the foreseeable future the usefulness of Chabahar and the INSTC will triumph over those of others.
(Second part of this article is from Aditi Bhaduri)
