Sir: Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) constitute an important storehouse of natural resources; and have hence attracted several countries for establishing economic cooperation with them in the past.
Recently, a new economic corridor is being proposed for connecting landlocked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent by establishing a new corridor through Afghanistan-Iran-India. The proposed corridor is expected to pass through roadway networks from Central Asia-Afghanistan and Iran and then to the Chabahar Port of Iran. The Chabahar port is to be connected through the maritime network to the western parts of India and from there to mainland India by roadways and railway networks.
There are further talks of connecting this to the Eastern corridor of India that now also links Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Currently, a vast highway is also under construction stretching from North East India to Myanmar and Thailand to reach the ASEAN economic zone of SE Asia via road through India, Bangladesh and Myanmar into Thailand. If Central Asia could be linked to this eastern corridor that could easily connect the vast flow of trade and commerce from Central Asia across Afghanistan, Iran and the Indian subcontinent to the SE Asia.
This proposed economic corridor has the potential to connect Central Asia to the Middle East via Iran, SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) economic zones resulting in the development of one of the biggest and most populous mega economic zone of the world. This will not only benefit the Central Asian countries, Iran, SAARC and ASEAN member nations; but also cater to the adjoining countries in the Middle East as also to Russia, Mongolia, China Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey too.
SAIKAT KUMAR BASU
Canada