Afghanistan as a Land Bridge between Central Asia and South Asia for Economic Cooperation: Challenges and Opportunities
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Energy Security is important for healthy economy of any country.Thus countries try to have long term and stable arrangements to meet their energy requirements.Undoubtedly Central Asia is a rich source for energy.However, ease of transportation is a connected issue.Accordingly, the Energy-rich Central Asia has been making attempts to have access to global markets through land and sea from the time nations in the region gained independence from erstwhile USSR.South Asia, on the other hand, is energy starved and is keen to have access to plenty of natural resources of Central Asia through bilateral and multilateral relations with the five CARs.Therefore, the regional connectivity between Central Asia and South Asia has been a top issue in the recent two decades despite various challenges and geopolitical constraints.Benefits of enhanced connectivity are obvious: Access to ports in South Asia would energize the economies of CAR nations, while connectivity with fast-developing South Asia would expand market opportunities mutually.In this paper, the ancient cultural and trade ties between South Asia and Central Asia and the current demands of connectivity have been discussed based on ancient historic links and geopolitics of the region.The role of Afghanistan as a land bridge in the region has been analyzed to provide for regional economic integration between Central Asia and South Asia.Also, it has been pointed out to that the common challenges need to be removed and the opportunities need to be availed for multilateral partnership and for economic cooperation and development between the two regions.
Author: Masom Jan Masomy
Institution: Pondicherry University
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W3177728014