ISLAMABAD-UNS: Pakistan and Afghanistan relations have a new break through.Both the countries agreed to finalize the land connectivity through railway line via Afghanistan to Central Asian countries including Uzbekistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar and Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi have emphasised the importance of the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (UAP) Railway Line Project for regional connectivity.
During a telephone conversation between FM Dar and his Afghan counterpart on Sunday, the two leaders agreed to work closely for an early finalisation of the framework agreement, the Foreign Office spokesperson said in an official statement.
A day ago, Dar held a telephone conversation with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Saidov Bakhtiyor Odilovich as well and discussed the modalities for early finalisation of the framework pact for the UAP railway, including details of its signing ceremony in consultation with the leadership of Afghanistan.
The UAP Railway Line Project is a trilateral initiative that will enhance regional connectivity by connecting Central Asia with the ports of Gwadar and Karachi through Afghanistan. This project will link Tashkent to Peshawar via Kabul through a 573-kilometre track that will be built with an estimated cost of $5 billion.
Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed a road map for the building of the Termez-Mazar-I-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway in February 2021.
According to preliminary cost of the project about $5 billion, the new transport corridor with a transit potential of up to 20 million tons of cargo should connect the countries of Europe, Russia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and further the states of Southeast Asia.
