US Encourages Energy Project for Wider Region

Plans by Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia’s major producers of electricity, to sign an energy deal with Afghanistan and Pakistan will further the United States’ ambition of linking the region with South Asia and draw it into its sphere of influence, NBCentralAsia analysts say.



Officials from the four countries are meeting in Dushanbe on October 26 to 28 to discuss electricity supplies for the second time this year, following an initial round of talks in Islamabad this May. They are expected to get down to practicalities at the latest meeting and sign a memorandum of understanding.



Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have the biggest water resources in Central Asia and can generate huge amounts of energy from their hydroelectric stations. Meanwhile, Afghanistan and especially Pakistan have a growing need for power.



The United States is trying to link up the two sides. The US Agency for Trade and Development has given the Tajik energy ministry a grant of 800,000 US dollars to assess the potential of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan to export electricity to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ministry has commissioned the American company AES to assess the feasibility and attractiveness of the electricity transit and exports in Central Asia, and the same firm is already doing a feasibility study for a project to lay an electricity line from Tajikistan’s Sangtuda-1 power station to Pul-i-Khumri in Afghanistan.



In July, AES representatives in the Kyrgyz and Kazak capitals made it clear they were interested in constructing high-capacity transmission lines to take electricity south to Afghanistan and Pakistan.



NBCentralAsia analysts in Tajikistan suggest that apart from the economic considerations, the United States’ efforts to boost energy cooperation stem from a desire for more political influence in Central Asia.



These analysts believe the United States role in such energy projects is part of a “greater Central Asia” project to unite the Central Asian countries with Afghanistan and Pakistan, under American patronage.



The US government initiated this political project at the beginning of the year, and the first inkling of its existence was given when the State Department’s Bureau of South Asian Affairs was expanded to include Central Asia, and its head was promoted.



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