Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan move towards regional integration

M. Shahidul Islam

As the US mulls over the prospect of quitting Afghanistan long before the 2014 deadline, the leaders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan (IPA) are busy in crafting a post-war roadmap for regional peace and stability.

Battered by prolonged sanction (Iran), terrorism (Pakistan) and war (Afghanistan), the three leaders promised in a regional summit in Islamabad, which ended on February 17, to root out terrorism, enhance bilateral trade, and stand together against foreign intervention.

They also pledged to extend full cooperation in bringing peace to war-devastated Afghanistan. According to the joint statement, President Ahmadinejad, and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, “reiterated their full support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned inclusive process of peace and reconciliation.”

 The summit had the blessings from both China and Russia, two of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, according to diplomatic and military sources. The prioritization of the geopolitical agendas does point to a plausible nexus with external powers.

The summit displayed an unprecedented show of unity at a time when Iran faced threats of external aggression and Pakistan decided not to cooperate with the USA due to a NATO attack inside Pakistan in November having killed 26 Pakistani soldiers and, the killing of more civilians inside Pakistan by frequent NATO drone attacks.

Military postures were aplenty too. The pledge to stand together against foreign intervention aside, the most important agreement in the summit was the pledge not to allow the territory of one for use to launch attack on the other. This was, perhaps, an oblique reference to the prospect of the use of territory of the neighbours by the USA to attack Iran. “All parties agreed to commence trilateral consultations on an agreement in this regard,” a joint statement read.

At least for now, the summit seems to have managed to extricate Iran from a prolonged spell of isolation by securing borders for trade and cooperation with its immediate neighbours. “When brothers join their hands together, certainly the hands of God will assist them,” said the Iranian President. Blaming ‘outside powers’ for all the problems of the region, Ahmadinejad said, “There are countries that are determined to dominate our region.... with their hegemony.”

 

Major step

Although the three leaders had already met in Tehran in June 2011 to discuss terrorism, the Islamabad summit was the first major step toward a regional integration of the three economies, and, embodied an effort to knot a hitherto unseen geopolitical collaboration.

Besides, the quest for an economic integration of the region stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Himalayas - which has long been hampered by an explosive mix of coups, wars, revolutions and external interventions - gained a fresh momentum in the summit. The leaders pledged to overcome their historical legacies by enhancing three-way trade, facilitating preferential tariff, signing free trade arrangements, embarking on barter trade, improving connectivity, expanding transit and cooperating in energy, mineral and agricultural developments.

To prove their depth of sincerity, the leaders mandated their respective foreign ministers to prepare and coordinate a Road Map for Trilateral Cooperation, to be completed before the next summit, expected to be held in Kabul later this year.

The only visible spasm stemmed from President Karzai’s request to Pakistan to influence Taliban leaders to join the ongoing peace negotiations. Pakistan took the request with a pinch of salt and responded tersely. The country’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, retorted: “It would be unrealistic and preposterous for Afghanistan to expect that her country could somehow arrange for Taliban leader Mohammad Omar to join the peace negotiations.”

Pakistan insists it too is a target of frequent Taliban attacks. Our Islamabad correspondent said, “Some fringe Taliban leaders are negotiating for peace with the USA, somewhere in Qatar, not with the Afghan government, not inside Afghanistan.”

That being the reality, the expressed commitments of the three leaders to endorse only an ‘Afghan-led solution’ to the conflict is bound to dampen the US efforts further. It may also put in question a Thursday report in The Wall Street Journal which quoted Karzai as saying that the “U.S. and Afghan government have begun secret three-way talks with the Taliban.”

The Journal’s report was trashed as ‘false’ by a statement released by the Taliban that said ‘We (Taliban) will not deal with the puppet Karzai regime.’

Such palpable dilemma of the Afghan regime notwithstanding, for its part, Pakistan has made a strategic decision to ally closely with Tehran and China, two of the regional powers, to reduce Indian influence in Afghanistan and to deflect US pressures, according to sources.

 

Economic boom

Islamabad expects an economic boon from this new regional integration. Iran has agreed to construct a gas pipeline to cover both Pakistan and Afghanistan to fuel their industrialization and to sell oil to Pakistan at a discounted rate, with deferred payments. President Ahmadinejad also pledged to boost bilateral trade with Pakistan to $10 billion within two months, according to the Pakistan Tribune newspaper.

Being a landlocked nation, Afghanistan too needs both Iran and Pakistan to conduct external trading. Earlier, in 2010, the US has influenced Pakistan to replace an outdated Afghan-Pakistan transit trade agreement, signed in 1965. Bilateral trades have increased many fold since and, is expected to double by 2015 from the current $2.5 billion to $5 billion.

The new agreement allows Afghan trucks to drive through Pakistan to the Wagah border with India and use port facilities in Pakistan’s Karachi and Gwadar ports.

War-torn Afghanistan also needs Iran’s economic support for reconstruction, as well as to avail a window of opening to the Persian Gulf.

In 2009, Iran was the fourth largest investor in Afghanistan and the two neighbours have decided to construct a new rail line connecting the Iranian city of Mashhad with Afghanistan’s Herat, and, eventually Kabul. Thanks to Iranian investment, Herat has turned into a Dubai of Afghanistan and bilateral trade with Iran is expected to surpass $3 billion annually by 2013 (globalreview.ca). 

Source : Holiday

Posted in: World News