Pakistan-Uzbekistan Relationship
PAKISTAN-UZBEKISTAN RELATION SHIP 1. INTRODUCTION Pakistan–Uzbekistan relations are the foreign relations between Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Relations between the two states were established when the republic of Uzbekistan became independent following the collapse of the USSR, the relations between the two countries were initially strained by the situation in Afghanistan which both countries border as they supported different factions Afghan factions.
However relations improved after the fall of the Taliban, both countries seeking to improve relations for the sake of trade, Pakistan wishing to gain access to Central Asian markets and landlocked Uzbekistan to access ports on the Indian Ocean. Despite this the two brotherly countries have some culture in common especially because of deep Turkic and Persian influences in the two countries. Uzbeks have historically, travelled to the region of Pakistan as technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis during the Islamic Sultanates and Mughal Empire and settled permanently.
There are many shrines doted throughout Pakistan in honour of noted Uzbek noblemen. Many Pakistanis claim Uzbek ancestry. 2. HISTORY Although initially apprehensive about the spread of an Iranian-style Islamic fundamentalist movement in Central Asia, Uzbekistan also has found mutual economic interests with Pakistan, and the two have pursued overland links and other joint ventures. There has been a particular commercial interest in hydroelectric power, gas pipelines, and other projects.
And a meeting of the heads of state of Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey in Turkmenistan in early 1995 underscored the continuing interest of those countries in the Central Asian region as a whole. 3. Importance Pakistan and Uzbekistan has made encouraging progress in realizing the goal of establishing functional transport corridors and institutionalizing business linkages. Both the countries need to take full advantage of their geographic proximity to enhance cooperation. Shared heritage and history is einforced by geography, culture and religion and that ensured a common destiny of Pakistan and Uzbekistan and the time had come to realize the true potential in their relationship. 4. Trade between Pakistan & Uzbekistan i. Pakistan’s exports to Uzbekistan * Medical & Pharmaceutical Products * edible products * medical & surgical instruments * chemical materials * and sports fabrics and goods * tobacco/tobacco manufacture * Leather & Leather manufacture ii. Pakistan’s imports from Uzbekistan * Raw cotton * non-ferrous metals * leather medical and pharmaceutical products * chemical products * natural honey 5. Main contributory factors Uzbekistan’s macro-economy Since its independence 1991, the government of Uzbekistan rigorously followed and implemented the prophecies of liberalization of economy and ultimately succeeded to achieve the desired goals of socio-economic prosperity. 1) Open market reforms 2) Attractions of foreign investments 3) Deep structural changes in economy 4) Modernization and renovation of production 5) Creation of the new export-bound sectors and enterprises ) Accelerated development of business and private entrepreneurship Both the countries have signed more than 29 agreements and MOUs (MOU– see Glossary) which guideline us in all spheres of bilateral cooperation and brotherly relations 6. ECO and cooperation One forum that has emerged as a potentially important structure for cooperation among Central Asian countries and Pakistan has been the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO–see Glossary), a loose regional economic organization to foster trade and cooperation among its members in the Middle East and South Asia.
Although during its almost two decades of existence ECO has achieved little concrete economic cooperation, in November 1992 the inclusion of the five new Central Asian states, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan brought significant efforts to reinvigorate the organization. At a meeting in Quetta, Pakistan, in February 1993, an ambitious plan was announced to create a new regional economic bloc among ECO’s members by the year 2000.
The plan calls for expanding ties in all economic sectors, in training, and in tourism; setting up an effective transportation infrastructure; and ultimately abolishing restrictions limiting the free flow of people and commodities. Energy trade also is to be expanded through the laying of oil and gas pipelines and power transmission lines throughout the region. Given ECO’s past performance, however, in 1996 the potential for fulfillment of such plans was quite unclear. 7. Expected mutual cooperation (a) Seaports
Uzbekistan would consider entering into a tri-partite agreement with Pakistan via Afghanistan in order to gain access to the Pakistani ports at Karachi and Gwadar in order to increase volumes of bilateral trade. The Gwadar deep seaport provides Central Asia with the shortest access to sea. It is an ideal location for investment in the field of petrochemicals, fish and food processing, heavy engineering, metal work, steel products and others export oriented industries. (b) FDIs and Joint ventures (Uzbekistan) i.
For the potential foreign investors Uzbekistan offers different forms of ventures, setting up joint-ventures, enterprises with 100% foreign capital, acquisition of part or entire issues of shares of privatized companies and etc, as well as groups of projects in different spheres of economy. 1) Industrial complex 2) Agriculture 3) Transport 4) Telecommunications 5) Construction 6) Public health 7) Tourism ii. Pakistan’s potential exports 1) Engineering products and tools 2) Medical, surgical and sports goods 3) Textile fabrics iii. Uzbekistan’s potential exports ) Cotton fiber 2) Chemical production 3) Silk 4) Mineral products 5) Fertilizers 6) Cables 7) Construction material 8) Agriculture machinery iv. Potential role of PAK CASPIAN TRADE LINKS Company Uzbekistan lies in the heart of Central Asia and at a major intersection of the Silk Road. The potential markets of Central Asia (60 million people) and the Silk Road region (142 million people) lie unexploited. There are a growing number of formal cooperation programmes to renew trade, transit, investment and tourism in Central Asia and along the ancient Silk Road.
PAK CASPIAN TRADE LINKS Company has also opened up a corridor for transit cargo to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan through Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. It would be instrumental to increase trade between the CIS (CIS—see Glossary) and Pakistan in the days to come. 8. Potential areas of mutual cooperation a. Tourism: Uzbekistan is the only country in the region of CIS having such a good opportunity for bilateral tourism. With the exchange of visits of our Presidents, Uzbekistan Airways has opened regular commercial flights (2-3 times a week) between Lahore and Tashkent.
This has opened a huge opportunity for bilateral tourism. More than 20 Pakistani tourist companies had signed MOUs with Uzbek counterparts. In 2007 Pakistani Company “Travel Planners” has become an official representative of National Tourism Company of Uzbekistan “Uzbekturism” in Pakistan. “New Arabian Express” and “Crystal Travels” Companies were agents for Uzbek Airways in 2006-2008. In 2009 “Travel Planners” was appointed as agent for Uzbek Airways. b. Education: Medical and health sciences, exchange of intellectuals and researchers, grant of scholarship technical assistance courses, science & technology c.
Information and broadcasting d. Banking and finance e. Energy cooperation The government of Pakistan is diversifying its energy sources. Uzbekistan is rich in energy resources and the two countries can enter into joint ventures in the fields of oil, gas and petroleum sectors. To fulfill the supply and demand gap both the country can extend their cooperation in the field of energy. Uzbekistan after its independence has gained independence in gas, oil industry and grain sufficiently. Nature has blessed Uzbekistan with minerals and energy resources too.
Both the countries are consideration the possible options to extent our cooperation in energy particularly in gas in the near future. Uzbekistan already supplies electricity to seven Northern provinces of Afghanistan. So, it is a matter of time and negotiations to extent these supplies to Pakistan. f. Mineral and metal cooperation Uzbekistan occupies leading places on confirmed stocks of useful fossilized, such as gold, Uranus, copper, natural gas, tungsten, potassium salts, phosphorus, kaolin in the world. The value of total proven reserves is estimated at 1. trillion USD, and the total mineral-resource potential of the country at over 3. 5 trillion USD. Our largest province Balochistan also possesses large mineral and metals reservoirs which needs to be explored. So, mutual cooperation between the two countries in the fields of mineral and metal exploration would be win-win position for both the countries. * On stocks of gold republic occupies a fourth place in the world, but on the level of its mining seventh place * On stocks of copper tenth-eleventh place * Uranus seventh-eighth place, but on its mining-eleventh-a twelfth place g.
Defence cooperation Uzbekistan has great level of defence cooperation with many countries, including brotherly Pakistan. For example, Uzbekistan produces three types of aircrafts “IL-86”, “IL-86M” and “IL-114” which are being exported to Russia, Jordan, India and Azerbaijan. Again this a matter of time and economic prudence to explore the possibility of joint cooperation in this filed too. 9. The Tashkent Declaration The Tashkent Declaration of 10 January 1966 was a peace agreement between India and Pakistan.
In September 1965 before the two had engaged in the short run Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Peace had been achieved on 23 September by the intervention of the great powers who pushed the two nations to a cease fire for fears the conflict could escalate and draw in other powers. A meeting was held in Tashkent in the Uzbek SSR, USSR (now in Uzbekistan) beginning on 4 January 1966 to try to create a more permanent settlement. The Soviets, represented by Premier Alexei Kosygin moderated between Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani President Muhammad Ayub Khan. 10. Constraints ) Prevailing worsening geo-political and geo-strategic situation in Afghanistan 2) Ongoing energy crisis in Pakistan 3) Deteriorating law and order situation in Pakistan 4) Lack of skilled labour 5) Absence of intellectual properties rights 6) Lack of openness for higher technological investments 11. Concluding remarks Prospects are bright and opportunities are unlimited. Keeping in view the geographical advantages of both the countries along with their unlimited natural reservoirs the prospects of having enhanced bilateral relations between Pakistan and Uzbekistan are very bright.
The essential thing is needed, a strong political commitment of both the countries, close linkage between the business communities, chambers of commerce an industry, better understanding between the intelligentsia and people-to-people interaction would bring dividends in the days to come. From Sialkot to Samarkand and from Faisalabad to Fergana and from Karachi to Khiva there would be bridge of trust, harmony, cooperation and collaboration. GLOSSARY i.
ECO – Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the Member States. ii. MOU – A memorandum of understanding (MOU or MOU) is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in situations where the parties cannot create a legally enforceable agreement. ii. CIS — The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Pakistan%E2%80%93Uzbekistan_relations [ 2 ]. http://countrystudies. us/uzbekistan/53. htm [ 3 ]. http://www. opfblog. com/7673/pakistan-uzbekistan-bilateral-relations/ [ 4 ]. http://countrystudies. us/uzbekistan/53. htm [ 5 ]. http://www. opfblog. com/7673/pakistan-uzbekistan-bilateral-relations/
