Tajik-Afghan Bridge to Boost Trade

The trade benefits of a new bridge connecting Tajikistan and Afghanistan outweigh the risk of increased drug trafficking, say NBCentralAsia analysts.



On August 26, Tajik president Imomali Rahmon and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai opened a new road bridge that connects their countries across the Pyanj river.



The 37 million US dollar project was funded by the United States, Norway, Japan and the European Union and US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez was also present at the ceremony.



The 600-metre-long bridge can take up to 1,000 vehicles a day and analysts have expressed concern that it may make it even easier for drug traffickers to smuggle opiates from Afghanistan into Tajikistan.



The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the latest opium poppy crop in Afghanistan will yield 8,200 tonnes of opium, which is some 2,000 tonnes more than the previous harvest.



NBCentralAsia analysts say that if bridge traffic is adequately controlled by both sides, then the benefits from using it will outweigh the risks.



Deputy Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies Saifullo Safarov says that international donors are helping to set up an effective security system at the bridge that neither Tajikistan nor Afghanistan could have introduced without outside help.



Political analyst Khodi Abdudjabbor believes the threat of increased drug smuggling across the bridge has been exaggerated given that traffickers use many other routes to bring opiates into Tajikistan.



Before the bridge was opened, Tajikistan could only transport freight through Uzbekistan, with which it has a transit agreement. Diplomatic relations between the two countries are thorny and their citizens need visas to travel back and forth.



Abdudjabbor explains that the Pyanj bridge has broken Tajikistan’s transportation deadlock and given it vital access to South Asian markets.



Tajik agricultural producers will find it much cheaper and more convenient to trade with Afghanistan’s northern provinces and Iran through this direct route.



However, political analyst Kosim Begmuhamedov maintains that the warnings over increased drug trafficking are justified and the amount of trade that can pass through still depends on stability in Afghanistan.



The south of Afghanistan and the areas that border Pakistan are still very unstable and “this bridge will not bring the results that Dushanbe and Kabul are counting on yet”, he said.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)