This is followed by another procession to the Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral, depending on where the service is, the report said…reports Asian Lite News
The Queen’s state funeral will be the UK’s first in more than half a century, with former Prime Minister Winston Churchill being the last head of state to be accorded with this honour in 1965.
Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. She was 96.
Unlike Prince Philip, who had a royal ceremonial funeral, the Queen will have a state funeral, which is usually reserved for the sovereign.
A state funeral typically begins with the body being carried on a gun carriage, which is drawn by sailors from the Royal Navy, as part of a military procession, according to The Independent newspaper.
The body is taken from a private resting chapel to Westminster Hall in the House of Parliament, it said.
This is followed by another procession to the Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral, depending on where the service is, the report said.
Heads of state are then given a 21-gun salute.
The only monarch not to be given a state funeral in the last 295 years was Edward VIII, who abdicated.
The last state funeral in the UK was Churchill’s in 1965 and the last state funeral for a sovereign was for the Queen’s father, George VI, in 1952.
The Queen’s coffin will be lying in state, which is a tradition in which the body is placed in a state building for the public to pay their tributes.
The Queen will lie in state in Westminster Hall for about four days before her funeral, according to the BBC.
The last member of the Royal Family to lie in state in the hall was Queen’s mother in 2002, when more than 200,000 people queued to view her coffin, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, bells tolled around Britain on Friday as mourners flocked to palace gates to pay tributes to the Queen.
The coffin was draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland with a wreath on top made of flowers taken from the Balmoral estate including sweet peas, one of Elizabeth’s favorites…reports Asian Lite News
Queen Elizabeth’s coffin arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday after a six-hour journey from her summer home in the Scottish Highlands, past tens of thousands of mourners lining the route, many in somber silence, some applauding and others in tears.
Shortly after 10 a.m. (0900 GMT), a hearse carrying Elizabeth’s oak coffin emerged from the gates of Balmoral Castle, where she died on Thursday aged 96, at the start of a slow drive to the Scottish capital.
The coffin was draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland with a wreath on top made of flowers taken from the Balmoral estate including sweet peas, one of Elizabeth’s favorites.
Crowds, fifteen deep in places, massed in the center of Edinburgh to greet the cortege, which included the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, as it made it way to the Palace of Holyroodhouse where it was met by a military guard of honor.
In towns and cities across the UK, the Accession of His Majesty King Charles III has been Proclaimed.https://t.co/YrreR282at
Soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland then carried the coffin to the throne room of the palace where it will remain overnight.
“There was no way I could miss this. I would regret it for the rest of my life,” said Eilidh Mackintosh, 62, who left her home at 6 a.m. to be sure of a good view on Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile where large crowds were gathering.
“She never let us down and I didn’t want to let her down either. Now she has gone there is a big hole in the heart of the nation.”
The journey from Balmoral was the first of a series of events leading up to the state funeral at Westminster Abbey in London on Sept. 19.
In an emotional tribute to his mother on Friday, the new monarch, King Charles, said she had begun a “last great journey” to join Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years who died last year.
Her death has drawn tears, sadness and warm tributes, not just from the queen’s own close family and many in Britain, but also from around the globe — reflecting her presence on the world stage for seven decades.
Wherever the cortege went as it wound its way through picturesque countryside, villages, small towns and cities, people lined the road or stopped their cars to get out and watch. At one point, it passed a guard of honor formed by dozens of tractors lined up in adjacent fields by farmers.
Many watched silently in bright sunshine. Some threw flowers into the road. For others, the emotion of the moment moved them to tears. “It’s just very, very sad. I’m happy I was here to say our goodbyes,” said Elizabeth Alexander, 69, who was born on the day the queen was crowned in 1953.
Many thousands are continuing to gather at other royal palaces across Britain, and large piles of flowers are massing as people visit to pay their respects.
Charles became king immediately after his mother’s death and was officially proclaimed the new monarch at a ceremony on Saturday, full of pageantry and centuries-old traditions.
Similar proclamations are following across the United Kingdom and the other 14 realms of which Charles is now head of state, including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said parliament would be recalled on Thursday to allow members to pay tribute.
The queen came to the throne following the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952, when she was just 25. Her coronation took place a year later.
While Elizabeth’s death was not totally unexpected given her age and deteriorating health, there was still a sense of shock at the news.
“We all thought she was invincible,” her grandson Prince William, now the heir to the throne, told a well-wisher on Saturday as he met crowds at Windsor castle.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II will be held at Westminster Abbey at 11am on Monday 19th September pic.twitter.com/zia6z5A4lf
The day of Elizabeth’s funeral will be a public holiday in Britain, officials have announced. US President Joe Biden said he would be there, although full details of the event and the attendees have not yet been released.
Before that, her coffin will be flown to London and there will be a somber procession when it is later moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where it will lie in state for four days.
“It goes without saying that we can expect large numbers of people,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Liz Truss told reporters.
Truss, whose appointment as prime minister on Tuesday was the queen’s last public act, will join King Charles as both the new head of state and prime minister tour the four nations of the United Kingdom in the next few days.
Charles, 73, is now the 41st monarch in a line that traces its origins to the Norman King William the Conqueror who captured the English throne in 1066.
Elizabeth’s death has capped a difficult couple of years for the royal family.
The most high-profile issue has involved her grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who stepped down from royal life in 2020 to move to California from where they both have heavily criticized the institution.
That has left them alienated from the rest of the family, with Harry and his older brother William said to be barely on speaking terms. But the death of their grandmother has seen differences put aside, as they appeared together with their wives outside Windsor Castle to meet the crowds on Saturday.
A royal source described it as an important show of unity at an incredibly difficult time for the family.
The king will meet leaders from all the major faiths in Northern Ireland before attending a prayer service at St Anne’s Cathedral, and then return to London…reports Asian Lite News
A procession of the coffin through Scotland, a vigil by the new king, public tributes and a state funeral on September 19: here is how the UK plans to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II, who has died aged 96.
Monday, September 12
At 10:00 am, the king and his wife Camilla, now Queen Consort, will visit parliament to receive condolences from the speakers of the lower and upper houses, before delivering a reply.
The royal couple will fly to Edinburgh and at Holyroodhouse palace the king will take part in the Ceremony of the Keys, where he will symbolically receive — and then return — the keys to the city.
The ceremony traditionally marks the start of Holyrood Week, when the queen visits Scotland. She last received and returned the keys in June this year.
In the afternoon, the king and other royals will take part in a procession to convey the queen’s coffin along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to St Giles’ Cathedral, before a religious service.
After his first audience with Sturgeon at the palace and a visit to the Scottish Parliament, Charles III will return to St Giles’ to take part in a vigil over the coffin with other family members.
There will also be an opportunity for the public to visit the coffin as it lies in rest guarded by the Royal Company of Archers.
The king and his wife will be joined in Scotland — and on his tour of Northern Ireland and Wales — by Prime Minister Liz Truss, Downing Street said.
“It’s not a requirement,” Truss’s spokesman told reporters on Saturday.
“But the prime minister believes it’s important to be present for what will be a significant moment of national mourning around the United Kingdom.”
Tuesday, September 13
In the afternoon, the coffin will be flown by the Royal Air Force to an airfield near London, accompanied by the queen’s daughter Anne, the Princess Royal, and then driven to Buckingham Palace, to rest in the Bow Room.
Meanwhile Charles III and his wife will fly to Belfast, where he will meet Northern Ireland’s party leaders and receive a message of condolence led by the speaker of the devolved assembly.
The king will meet leaders from all the major faiths in Northern Ireland before attending a prayer service at St Anne’s Cathedral, and then return to London.
Wednesday, September 14
In the afternoon, the king will lead the procession behind the gun carriage carrying the queen’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to parliament’s Westminster Hall.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will conduct a short service after the coffin arrives, attended by the king.
The late queen will lie in state there until the funeral, with members of the public able to pay their respects.
Thursday, September 15
Charles III and his wife will visit Wales, completing trips to all four nations that make up the United Kingdom.
Monday, September 19
The queen’s coffin will be taken in procession to Westminster Abbey for a state funeral at 11:00 am expected to be watched by millions around the world.
Political leaders and heads of state including US President Joe Biden are expected to attend the event, sparking a major security operation.
After the funeral, the coffin will be taken to Windsor, for a televised committal service at St George’s Chapel, with a private interment service planned for later in the evening.
The queen will be interred privately at the King George VI memorial chapel, alongside her husband, Prince Philip, the ashes of her sister Princess Margaret, their mother, also called Elizabeth, and father George VI.
Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes King Charles III will streamline the monarchy, along the lines of other European ones…reports Asian Lite News
King Charles III practised for the day he would become Britain’s new monarch and Head of State by holding weekly audiences with the Head of Government, former Prime Minister David Cameron revealed on Sunday as he reflected upon the former Prince of Wales’ “longest apprenticeship in history” as the successor to Queen Elizabeth II.
Cameron, who was British Prime Minister between 2010 and 2016, disclosed that during his time at 10 Downing Street he had audiences with the then Prince of Wales so he could prepare for his elevation.
As the new sovereign following the death of his mother on Thursday, 73-year-old King Charles III would be holding weekly audiences with the Prime Minister as a key part of his regular schedule of events.
“I had audiences with Prince Charles when Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne because he wanted to start thinking about how to conduct those audiences,” Cameron told the BBC in an interview.
“From what I saw he will be brilliant at that job. Brilliant at listening, brilliant at asking questions, giving wise advice and sage counsel. This has probably been the longest apprenticeship in history,” he said.
The former Conservative Party leader described the new monarch as a “superb diplomat”, like the late Queen and said he would be a “very worthy successor” in supporting the British government as its new Head of State.
“I saw him in action at Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings and he knows everybody personally, he interacts with them brilliantly,” said Cameron.
“The soft power that the British monarch brings to help a Prime Minister and a government with all those international relations, it was obviously outstanding under Queen Elizabeth II. I think you will see Charles III will be a very worthy successor in that regard,” he said.
Other former British Prime Ministers, who were all present at Charles’ proclamation as King at St. James’s Palace on Saturday, have also been reflecting on the shift in monarchy styles under the new King.
Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes King Charles III will streamline the monarchy, along the lines of other European ones.
“I think what Prince Charles has already indicated is that the monarchy is going to be smaller,” Brown told the BBC.
“It’s going to be more like a Scandinavian monarchy in the future but not in a bad way, more in the sense of informal. He stopped before he entered Buckingham Palace to greet people in the crowd and that was a signal he was sending that he wanted people to feel he was approachable and he was not going to be absent from the public or, alternatively, approachable,” he said.
His predecessor as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, writes in ‘The Sunday Times’ that King Charles III is an “intelligent, caring and good man” with a strong sense of service.
“Do not imagine for an instant that in the long years past he has not watched, absorbed and thought about what it means to be king. He is well prepared and, I have no doubt, resilient for the task ahead,” he said.
Meanwhile, a number of subtle changes have already taken place with the end of the Elizabethan Age and the new monarch being proclaimed.
The country’s national anthem switched to “God Save the King” and Her Majesty’s Government will be referred to as His Majesty’s Government.
Other changes, such as the image used on the nation’s currency, will be a more gradual process as coins and notes with the Queen’s image remain in circulation for at least a few years.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy during winter and improves during monsoon…reports Sumi Khan
The air quality in Dhaka continued to be under the “unhealthy” category on Saturday as the Bangladeshi capital, one of the most polluted cities in the world, registered an air quality index (AQI) score of 160.
With this AQI score, Dhaka is currently the fourth most polluted cities in the world after Lahore, Karachi and Wuhan (China) occupied the top three spots with scores of 180, 169 and 161, respectively.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered ‘unhealthy’, particularly for sensitive groups.
Similarly, an AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be ‘poor’, while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered ‘hazardous’.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy during winter and improves during monsoon.
In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants — Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.
With the advent of winter, the city’s air quality starts deteriorating sharply due to the massive discharge of pollutant particles from construction works, rundown roads, brick kilns and other sources.
The Bangladeshi government earlier said only cardholders will be able to buy the items from TCB-designated dealers and other permanent sales points concerned…reports Asian Lite News
The Bangladeshi government on Sunday launched a special sales drive of essentials at subsidised rates across the South Asian country to help millions of low-income families cope with soaring prices.
Senior Secretary of Bangladesh’s Commerce Ministry, Tapan Kanti Ghosh inaugurated the special sales drive at a dealer point in the national capital Dhaka.
The drive run by the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) is aimed at selling essentials at subsidised prices for 10 million low-income families across the country, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Bangladeshi government earlier said only cardholders will be able to buy the items from TCB-designated dealers and other permanent sales points concerned.
Under the drive, each of the cardholders will get two litres of cooking oil, two kilograms of lentils, one kilogram of sugar and two kilograms of onions.
To ease the burden of low-income families, the government launched the special drive for delivering basic commodities to selected families as higher energy and commodity prices are pushing up inflation in the country.
Sindh is the worst-hit province so far, accounting for the most deaths and injuries. Of the 1,396 fatalities countrywide, Sindh’s total is 578. Injuries number is 8,321 of the countrywide total of 12,728…reports Asian Lite News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the international community that all countries would suffer damages “beyond their capacity to adapt” if the world failed to respond to the challenge of climate change, Samaa TV reported.
After a two-day Pakistan visit, the UN chief took to Twitter to write that he had “never seen climate carnage on the scale of the floods here in Pakistan”.
“This is a global crisis. It demands a global response,” he said.
The monsoon rainfall and subsequent floods have killed 1,396 people across the country between June 14 and September 9, and have left 12,728 injured. More than 30 million have also been displaced, Dawn reported.
Sindh is the worst-hit province so far, accounting for the most deaths and injuries. Of the 1,396 fatalities countrywide, Sindh’s total is 578. Injuries number is 8,321 of the countrywide total of 12,728.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday said his organisation would strongly advocate for ‘debt swaps’ with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank through which developing countries, including Pakistan — instead of paying back loans to foreign creditors — would be able to use that money to invest in climate resilience, investments in sustainable infrastructure, and green transition of their economies, Express Tribune reported.
“We will go on strongly advocating for these solutions in the meetings with the IMF and World Bank that will take place soon as well as at the G-20 meeting,” Guterres told the media on his arrival at the old airport of Karachi.
The UN chief appealed to the international community to scale up its support for flood-hit Pakistan, Express Tribune reported.
“We see here in Pakistan, the nature is striking back with devastating consequences,” he observed, adding: “I have seen many disasters in the world but I have never seen climate carnage on these scales.”
Country faces shortage of fever medicines
Pakistan is continuing to report more and more dengue virus cases daily, with panic and fear spreading among the public as a shortage of fever medicines has also surfaced, media reports said.
In Pakistan’s Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan, dengue has started to take a dangerous turn, Geo News reported.
Karachi reported another death from dengue virus in the last 24 hours, with over 2,000 people affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after excessive rains left breeding sites for mosquitoes, the report stated.
The wards reserved for dengue patients in Karachi’s hospitals have been are full. Punjab reported 125 new cases of the mosquito-borne disease. Moreover, dengue claimed four lives in the province, data from the Health Department showed.
Meanwhile, a shortage of medicine for fever remains persists in most areas of the country, with pharmacies in Punjab awaiting a resumption in the supply of the drug in Punjab for the last four weeks, Geo News reported.
In Peshawar, the price of a leaf of fever pills has increased from Rs 17 to Rs 30.
The collection finds its muse in none other than the brand’s Style Editor, Malaika Arora, in an avatar where nostalgia gets a cool upgrade…reports Asian Lite News
What better way to commemorate the spirit of “bouncing back” than with a twist of nostalgia when the world around us starts to live, work, holiday and see family and friends outside of home once again?
It’s “The Time To Mickey”, a collaboration collection that celebrates the delights of childhood experiences that bring Disney’s iconic figure Mickey Mouse to life, has been released by ‘The Label Life’, India’s well-known celebrity lifestyle brand!
This edit of thirty styles, suitably titled “It’s The Time To Mickey,” is inspired by the iconic Mickey Mouse, although in a different form! This collection stands out for its atypical depiction of Mickey in the shape of intriguing graphics like doodles and scribbles that are embellishing the outfits in unusual locations and formats.
Although Mickey is drawn in his trademark colours, the pop colours of the clothing give the image a cheery vibe. With a variety of designs in the collection, including airy dresses and transitional separates, you can easily transition into easy ensembles for work, your upcoming vacation, or even a fast Sunday brunch.
The collection finds its muse in none other than the brand’s Style Editor, Malaika Arora, in an avatar where nostalgia gets a cool upgrade!
“There is nothing more nostalgic than Mickey Mouse and his fun, playful energy we have all grown up with! The Disney x The Label Life collection celebrates the joy of nostalgia and is everything you need now! And of course, the collection portrays my favourite Mickey Mouse in our signature elevated styles with jumpsuits and co-ords,” says Malaika Arora, Style Editor, The Label Life.
Aiming for a third victory at the hustings in 2023, he now stands poised to announce his foray into national politics by offering a non-BJP and non-Congress alternative to the nation….reports Narendra Puppala
The aspirations for a separate Telangana state in the region date back to the days of the erstwhile Nizam’s dominions’ merger into independent India and becoming a part of the Telugu-speaking state of Andhra Pradesh. The many agitations ended up in failure until K Chandrasekhar Rao, popular as KCR, entered the scene with his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in 2001.
Besides leading the Telangana statehood agitation to its logical conclusion in 2014, KCR also led his party to electoral victory to become the first chief minister of the fledgeling state. Ever since there’s been no looking back for KCR as he went on to return to power with a thumping majority in the 2018 Assembly elections.
Aiming for a third victory at the hustings in 2023, he now stands poised to announce his foray into national politics by offering a non-BJP and non-Congress alternative to the nation.
A single-minded pursuit of his objectives has characterised KCR’s path to political success over the years. Neither does he hesitate to take a detour or change political allies if the decision serves ‘the cause of Telangana’ as he explained on several occasions.
Starting his political career with the Congress, KCR joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founded by NT Rama Rao. In April 2001, KCR exited the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP which was at the helm in Andhra Pradesh.
The exit ostensibly came after the TDP supremo put KCR on the back burner. KCR announced the formation of the TRS with the single-point agenda of achieving Telangana state and protecting the interests of its ‘exploited’ people. Despite facing ridicule from several quarters, KCR went about his campaign.
The first big break came when KCR tied up with the YS Rajasekhar Reddy-led Congress party for the 2004 general elections. Apart from helping the Congress storm back to power in Andhra Pradesh after ten years, the alliance helped the UPA unseat the NDA at the Centre. With a tally of five Lok Sabha seats and 26 Assembly seats, these elections helped the TRS shatter the perception of being a marginal player in state politics. KCR was accommodated in the Manmohan Singh cabinet at the Centre.
However, he was frustrated by the Congress party’s apparent disinterest in statehood for Telangana. This period also saw the Congress under chief minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy needle KCR by wooing TRS legislators and leaders. The TRS quit the Congress-led government in Andhra Pradesh in 2006. KCR resigned from the cabinet and the Lok Sabha. He returned to Parliament with a massive majority to prove his point and renewed his efforts to drum up support for Telangana statehood.
In 2009, KCR joined hands with his former boss Chandrababu Naidu and a few other parties, to form the ‘mahakutami’ or non-UPA, non-NDA grand alliance. The ostensible objective was to gain statehood and defeat Congress for betraying his trust.
However, the wily YS Rajasekhar Reddy proved to be more than a match. The Congress literally swept Andhra Pradesh in these general elections and contributed in large measure to the unexpected return of the UPA to power at the Centre for the second consecutive term. Interestingly, almost immediately after polling, KCR cosied up to the NDA which lost to the UPA.
At this point, it seemed that all was lost and looked like the end of the road for KCR. However, the Telangana proponent continued his struggle.
However, the tragic demise of chief minister Rajasekhar Reddy in a helicopter crash, a few months later, reversed the ground situation in Andhra Pradesh. Sensing an opportunity, KCR immediately sprang into action. He embarked on a hunger strike to death for his beloved state. Responding to his call, the people organised themselves into social and caste-based groups and took to the streets.
Meanwhile, a literal blockade of the capital city Hyderabad, and egged on by the opposition BJP, the UPA finally gave in and cleared the statehood demand. The matter was cleared in both Houses of Parliament amidst much drama but finally, Telangana state became a reality on June 2, 2014.
However, if the Congress was looking for an alliance with KCR for the 2014 polls, they were in for a shock. KCR decided to go to the polls on his own and led the TRS victory with 63 seats in the Assembly. Over the next seven years, he virtually decimated the TDP in Telangana and managed to turn the Congress into a shadow of its past stature.
An astute politician who knows which way the wind is blowing, KCR has had a love-hate relationship with the BJP. In his initial term, he was on cordial terms with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But the vibes worsened as the BJP began to flex its muscles in Telangana. In recent years KCR has not minced words when it comes to attacking the Prime Minister. “There is an undeclared emergency in the country,” he had famously declared recently.
With the gloves off, KCR has indicated he is seriously preparing for battle in the enemy’s territory. Flying across the country to confabulate with opposition leaders in different states, giving cash support to the families of dead farmers and martyred soldiers, announcing prospective freebies for farmers across the country, KCR is making his presence felt on the national scene.
KCR to launch national party
It’s finally official. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will soon launch a national political party.
During a meeting with former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy here on Sunday, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President stated that the formation of the national party and formulation of policies will soon take place.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, has been holding discussions with intellectuals, economists, and experts from various fields to work out an alternative national agenda.
KCR told the Janata Dal-Secular leader that TRS party leaders from the village level, district, and state level Presidents and Secretaries are also adopting resolutions to float a national party.
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…reports Asian Lite News
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”.
Turkmenistan too 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.
