The third quadrilateral summit hosted by Tajikistan last week may not have succeeded in breaking any fresh ground in terms of concrete results but it did bring to light a whole new spectrum of mutually-beneficial opportunities that just wait to be explored and exploited by the member countries, which include Pakistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari - by all accounts the first Pakistani leader, who thinks, rightly, that Pakistan's destiny is woven with Central Asia more closely than anywhere else - was in Dushanbe at the summit along with ministers for Defence, Foreign Affairs and Natural Resources. The Dushanbe meeting, on September 2, was sandwiched between the China-Eurasia Expo at Urumqi, China, and a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the Tajik capital - all three conclaves essentially geared to finding ways and means to strengthen ambience of co-operative relationship.
Given that the post-Soviet Central Asia has undergone tremendous political transformation and its governments are opening up for foreign investment and joint ventures, its huge energy resources have attracted competing international interests. But the problem of inaccessibility remains as these countries are not only landlocked but their easy access to sea is impeded by high mountainous terrains and long distances. Then there is the lingering twin-curse of terrorism and narcotics that at present is the most formidable hurdle in their way to increased regional and international trade and business.
Obviously then the focus of the Dushanbe summit, attended by heads of state from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Russia was increased co-operation in communication, transport and energy, and how best to improve security situation in the region.
For Pakistan, the Dushanbe forum was both a challenge and opportunity. In his meetings with his interlocutors, both at the summit and on the sidelines, President Zardari offered his government's maximum co-operation to improve transportation facilities by way of extended road and rail links to the sea via the Gwadar port.
Since Tajikistan lies adjacent to Pakistan's Chitral and the Gilgit-Baltistan region, it can have access to the sea by a road from Dushanbe to Chitral via Iskatul in Afghanistan, the President told his host Emomali Rakhmon. A day before at Urumqi, he had stated that Pakistan "sees great potential in Eurasian Corridor and fully supported its revival".
But the problem is that such hopes and aspirations have remained on the drawing boards as they refuse to climb down and acquire concrete existence. Unfortunately, however, nothing happens on the ground because the follow-up action doesn't take place. Take the case of CASA-1000 electricity import project; even after a score of years it is neither here nor there.
In fact, as the Business Recorder noted the other day, what little hope of its fulfilment was there stands dismissed after the World Bank has expressed reluctance to fund the dam that was to supply electricity for the CASA-1000 for its negative environmental impact on the already half dried up Aral Sea. Will Moscow pour in "millions of dollars" President Dmitry Medvedev promised at the summit now that the World Bank is backing out we don't know. Then there is this TAPI gas project that too is in the doldrums.
The villain of the piece that tends to bedevil prospects of productive co-operation among the Dushanbe summit countries is continuing absence of peace and security in Afghanistan. Even after the 10 long years of intense engagement, the US-led coalition has failed to restore normalcy in that country; in fact, the insurgents who were initially confined to southern and eastern provinces have of late surfaced in the north of Afghanistan jeopardising viability of various plans and projects that can effectively link up Central Asia with South Asia.
Rightly then the summit emphasised that "reduction of foreign military presence in Afghanistan should be accompanied by adequate increase of efforts by the participants of the international coalition for training and arming Afghan national security structures". On its own, Pakistan has fully co-operated with Kabul by stitching up a number of agreements that help facilitate Afghan business and trade, and there is some international recognition of it.
But there is no dearth of manipulations on the part of some powers to keep Pakistan and Afghanistan in hostile posture, their attitude influenced as much by their regional ambitions as by their strategic designs to see peace being alien to this part of the world.
So, in a way, though the Dushanbe summit did not come up with any strong commitment or sign off some concrete agreement but it did show light on the possibilities that lay buried under shallow earth and one day would certainly surface for exploitation for the benefit and welfare of people of this region.