Tajiks Seek Southward Transport Routes
Tajiks Seek Southward Transport Routes
A new plan to link Tajikistan’s transport network to Iran will not be practicable until the situation in Afghanistan stabilises, NBCentralAsia analysts say.
The Iranian ambassador to Dushanbe recently announced that his country was prepared to invest in a project to integrate the road and rail systems of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Each country will have to build connecting routes to link up with its neighbour, and Tehran says it is willing to help the Tajiks with road construction.
NBCentralAsia analysts say the Tajik authorities are prepared to look at every option and seek funding from anywhere, if that will help the country escape from its present isolated position. Tajikistan is currently heavily dependent on transit routes running north through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to world markets.
Work has already begun to rebuild road connections with Afghanistan. There is talk of laying a railway line, too, but this would be a costly and labour-intensive project over mountainous terrain. Iran, too, has begun working on a plan to lay a railway to Kabul.
It is Iran and Tajikistan that are most interested in this project, but they are geographically separated from one another by Afghanistan. NBCentralAsia analysts say everything therefore depends on Afghan domestic stability – and they doubt that will improve any time soon.
The analysts also believe a transport project involving Afghanistan would need at least tacit support from the United States. The US does favour improved transport links between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but since its relationship with Tehran is currently in crisis, it is unlikely to display the same optimism about adding Iran to the equation.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
The Iranian ambassador to Dushanbe recently announced that his country was prepared to invest in a project to integrate the road and rail systems of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Each country will have to build connecting routes to link up with its neighbour, and Tehran says it is willing to help the Tajiks with road construction.
NBCentralAsia analysts say the Tajik authorities are prepared to look at every option and seek funding from anywhere, if that will help the country escape from its present isolated position. Tajikistan is currently heavily dependent on transit routes running north through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to world markets.
Work has already begun to rebuild road connections with Afghanistan. There is talk of laying a railway line, too, but this would be a costly and labour-intensive project over mountainous terrain. Iran, too, has begun working on a plan to lay a railway to Kabul.
It is Iran and Tajikistan that are most interested in this project, but they are geographically separated from one another by Afghanistan. NBCentralAsia analysts say everything therefore depends on Afghan domestic stability – and they doubt that will improve any time soon.
The analysts also believe a transport project involving Afghanistan would need at least tacit support from the United States. The US does favour improved transport links between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but since its relationship with Tehran is currently in crisis, it is unlikely to display the same optimism about adding Iran to the equation.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
