TAPI and CPEC offer wide opportunities to interregional cooperation
Nowadays, connectivity - in any of its sense – energy lines, pipelines, maritime, air, rail and road transportation links - became the artery, feeding the economy’s vital functions of any state. And at the core of this process is political will and desire, compared to beating heart. This describes the integration processes, spinning the top of economic and political agenda in Asian nations.
Among these processes - projects of gas transport main Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which are going to benefit not only member-countries, but also adjacent Central Asia.
“Pakistan will use the corridor not only for its own prosperity but also enable neighboring states like China, Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics to benefit from the trade route”, said prime minister Shahid Haqan Abbasi of Pakistan, opening CPEC Summit and Expo 2018 in Karachi.
CPEC is a package of infrastructure projects worth of US $ 62 million, being implemented under wider Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. All of them are intended to rapidly modernize Pakistani economy by the construction of modern transportation networks, numerous energy projects, and special economic zones.
Moreover, CPEC also provides a platform to build many other side projects related to technology, agriculture and logistics.
There are plans on the table to extend the CPEC project to Afghanistan. This issue has been already discussed in December during the trilateral meeting of minister of foreign affairs.
CPEC, from the South-East and North-West, the TAPI energy bridge, initiated and promoted by Turkmenistan along with other regional projects, could be stabilizing factors for war-weakened Afghanistan. In other words, TAPI and CPEC can serve as a synergistic combination in terms of ensuring economic well-being and security on Afghan soil. In turn, stable Afghanistan means stability and sustainable progress in Central Asia.
TAPI now is enriched with more expanded content, and can be rightfully called as a TAPI corridor, taking into account that electricity lines, fiber optic line and highways will run in parallel. The recent decision of Turkmen leader to build a rail link from Galkynysh gas field to Afghanistan bolsters the role of TAPI as a corridor.
Thus, today all preconditions are available to synchronize TAPI and CPEC, two connectivity concepts of South Asia and Central Asia, both being a part of ongoing revival of Great Silk Road and both aimed at enhancing prosperity and wellbeing of Asian nations.
