Envoy says Tajikistan to support Pakistan on Afghan imbroglio

PESHAWAR: Ambassador of Tajikistan to Pakistan Ismatullo Nasredin said on Friday that his country would continue to extend support to Pakistan in its efforts to resolve the longstanding Afghan imbroglio.

Delivering a lecture on “Pak-Tajik Relations: Enhancing Academic Institutional Links” on the occasion of his maiden

visit to the Area Study Centre of the University of Peshawar, the ambassador said that both the countries shared common views on regional political and economic issues.

He said that a clash of interests of regional states in Afghanistan harmed relations of the regional countries during the 1990s. However, they are now at same page regarding a regional approach to Afghan issue.

He said the West did not understand the ground realities in the region and without regional approach, sustainable peace would be a distant possibility in Afghanistan.

If political agreement is reached in Afghanistan, all other issues would be solved automatically, he argued. \

He further said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) bypasses the instable Afghanistan for access to Central Asia. “Pakistan and Tajikistan can utilise the upgraded Karakoram Highway for enhancing trade through the quadrilateral transit trade agreement which is still underutilised,” he remarked.

Tajikistan is currently using Pakistan’s ports and hopefully the current bilateral trade volume of $62 million can be enhanced to $100 million, he maintained.

Speaking on the occasion, Director Area Study Centre Dr Shabbir Ahmad said Pakistan has deep cultural and historic links with the Central Asia.

He was of the opinion that Central Asia is considered as the past of Pakistan as it has been considered as its cultural extension. Also, Pakistan is believed as the future of Central Asia in the aftermath of CPEC, he argued.

Dr Shabbir said that Pakistan attached great significance to its relations with Central Asian Republics (CARs) and there was a growing realisation in CARs regarding the important geographical location of Pakistan. He submitted a draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Centre for Strategic Research under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan and Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar to the ambassador for facilitating the process of signing the document.

Earlier, the ambassador was received by the director of the centre in the presence of pro-vice-chancellor of the university Prof Dr Jauhar Ali. The ambassador also paid a detailed visit to each and every section of the centre, where the director briefed the visiting dignitary about the purpose and functions of the centre.