Trade, connectivity can end conflicts in region: speakers

LAHORE

Eminent writer and foreign policy expert Ahmed Rashid addressing the international conference on “Inter-Regional Connectivity: South Asia and Central Asia” at the Government College University has said the growing economies of leading Asian countries have created strong imperatives for inter-regional and intra-regional connectivity but Afghanistan war and bilateral disputes among states are among the major hurdles in the much needed process. 

“Even intra-regional connectivity within South Asia and Central Asia does not exist,” said Rashid in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the conference on Wednesday, which was chaired by Punjab Higher Education Minister Begum Zakia Shahnawaz.

As many as 25 foreign experts from Russia, China, India, Nepal, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, UK, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Sri Lanka, Thailand Singapore and USA are participating in the highly crucial conference and would debate on geopolitics of corridors: building economic and political linkages, energy security, socio-cultural connectivity and peace and security-centric cooperation during the six technical sessions of the conference. The conference was organised by the university’s Political Science Department in collaboration with the both provincial and federal high education commissions.

Ahmed Rashid briefed the participants in detail about economic strengthens, domestic political situations and foreign policies of major Central Asian and South Asian states. He said that China who was major player in this Great Game of inter-regional and intra-regional connectivity must make efforts in ending conflicts between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Pakistan and India.  The other speakers at the conference said an increase in trade and enhanced connectivity would make regional countries a stakeholder in peace and stability while easing the energy constraint for economic growth. They believed that this will reduce the levels of conflict and the regions would witness trade, tourism and energy flow across national borders and would help in healing wounds that have been bleeding for decades. 

The speakers said major initiatives towards Inter-Regional Connectivity included opening of borders, building logistic infrastructure, extending land access and entering currency swap and free trade agreements. “These initiatives would reduce poverty and enhance living standards of the people,” they said. Minister Begum Zakia Shahnawaz hoped that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would prove to be the much-needed economic lifeline of the whole region. She asked the scholars to contribute in the formulation of conceptual as well as methodological framework for economic cooperation. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah said the conference had immense potential to generate ideas and concepts that could pave the way for academic excellence, human development regional peace and cooperation. “We expect the scholars to bring forth new trends of regionalism in Asia keeping in view the indigenous realities and demands beyond the conventional parameters of regional study, and contribute in the formulation of a theoretical framework for further research,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt, the conference chairman, said the connectivity deficit was pushing the South Asia back in the volley of the world regions.

“A common vision needs to be developed within the regional matrix because the diversity in these regions can be harnessed into the collective synergy for the prosperous future of the regions,” he said.

He said after the disintegration of Soviet Union, the central Asian energy rich states had got an opportunity to stretch themselves to South Asia for economic gains and to find a shortest access to Indian Ocean for trade and commerce. This is the time that the countries of South Asia and Central Asia should resolve their bilateral issues and develop a mechanism for cooperation and understanding.

He said geographic linkages would bring political and economic developments which can also address the regional problems like poverty, illiteracy, extremism and intolerance in the region. 

Addressing the first technical session of the conference on geopolitics, Middle East Institute, Washington Centre for Pakistan Studies Director Prof Marvin G Weinbaum said that reconciliation in South Asia was the prerequisite for Inter-Regional Connectivity.