The Economic Cooperation Organization ECO is the successor organization of RCD (Regional Cooperation for Development that was formed in 1964 leveraging the status of being in the American bloc and was re-formed in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey under a mutual agreement to further enhance cooperation in economic, trade and tourism sectors due to border connectivity. The ECO was expanded in 1992 after the collapse of the USSR to include seven new members, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The main objective of ECO was to develop necessary infrastructure and institutions among the member states to make full use of the available resources in the region and provide sustainable development. It should be kept in mind that Central Asia (Formerly Turkestan) was the region of the ‘Great Game’ between the British and Imperial Russia. This British-Russian competition was significant not only because of the hydrocarbon resources but also for the struggle for influence. Elaborating another historical fact of World War II, one of Germany’s central goals was to expand southeast into the Caucasus and Central Asia (Turkestan) to gain control of the vast farmland and natural energy resources. In this regard, quite a few ECO summit meetings had taken place in which the emphasis was the Connectivity for Regional Prosperity through greater economic integration and close people-to-people contact.
Common area of cooperation between ECO countries is, potentially, cooperation in energy, the need for greater cooperation in agriculture, environment, and tourism. Turkey is implementing a number of big infrastructure projects that would link the country with neighboring countries and regions through rail, roads, sea and air.
ECO is an important platform for constructive dialogue among member states and has set the direction of development of the member states. ECO has significant potential for expanding partnership particularly in vital issues including security and there is big need for cooperation among member states in energy.
Turkmenistan’s energy strategy is multi-directional and construction work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan–Pakistan-India gas pipeline had been started and implementation of this project is being realized with the participation of ECO member states.
Azerbaijan’s special emphasis is on mutual cooperation among the ECO countries in the field of infrastructure, connectivity, and transportation for the development and the progress of the region. Trade, investment and effective use of energy resources constitute key elements of regional cooperation.
“ECO member states should pay greater attention to implementation of joint infrastructure projects to facilitate connectivity of transport and energy networks in the region and the activities of the ECO should help promote socio-economic development, poverty reduction and improvement in living standards in the member states”.
The ECO countries also emphasized upon the need for developing road and sea routes through establishment of transport corridors and expressed the confidence that implementation of the high voltage power transmission line CASA-1000, acknowledged to be the first ever energy project between South and Central Asian regions, would help realize the objective of shared progress.
ECO will make rapid progress to reap benefits of mutual economic cooperation under the leadership of Pakistan and Turkey. Collective and joint approach of the ECO member states will make the organization a vibrant platform for mutual cooperation and bring development and prosperity to the region. Due to Pakistan’s strategic location, it provides the shortest outlet to landlocked Central Asian Republics to the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and further to rest of the world. Pakistan acts as a bridge between South and West Asia for resources of Middle East and South Asia.
The Karakoram Highway is an ancient Silk Route between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China and Pakistan and for having access to Gwadar port, this route provides the land link to Central Asian Republics through Tajikistan. Pakistani ports which are around 1700 km away from Central Asian Republics are the shortest route for economic link between Pakistan and Central Asian Republics.
It can give boost to bilateral trade in raw material and manufactured goods. It is to be said that Pakistan has to build cultural and economic ties with Central Asian Republics which will provide a natural strategic depth to Pakistan against the hegemony of India in South Asia.
Pakistan and Central Asian Republics.have many things common in their societies like the religion of Islam, having tribal system, architecture, art and design, and common TUANIC background, etc. Turkestan was also named as TURAN and norther Pakistan was the part of Greater TURAN.
In ancient times the people of both regions carried out bilateral trade and Afghanistan was used for reaching each other’s region and Peshawar was the main city used for trade. The Hindko language of Peshawar was also used for trade dealings between Central Asia and the Sub-Continent.
Samarkand-Multan to Lahore route was used for trading. The Ports of Pakistan can give boom to Central Asia and future developments can lead this region into another Middle East when linked with outside world. The Central Asian Republics will be linked with Gwadar Port through the Karakoram Highway, Turkham and Chaman. This route will bring lot of economic activities for Pakistan as well as for Central Asian Republics.
If this proposed route and resource corridor is established then Pakistan’s dependence on the Middle East will definitely be reduced. The proposed TAPI is also a good project to utilize the energy resources of Central Asian Republics.
The Gwadar Port is the first step towards fulfilling Pakistan’s ambition of becoming a Trade and Energy Corridor (TEC) for China, which will help shipping Persian Gulf oil from Gwadar overland through Pakistan to China. The RCD Highway formally known as Highway N-25 already exists between Pakistan Iran and Turkey and it connects Balochistan with other provinces and cities in Pakistan and further with Iran and Turkey. It is an 813 km long highway, passing through Karachi, Bela, Khuzdar, Kalat, Quetta and Chaman and then continuing into Afghanistan, It then joins N-40 (National Highway 40 Quetta-Taftan International Border Circuit) which leads it via Naukundi to Road 84 in Iran and through various Iranian Highways to Turkey and onwards into Europe.
The highway also has a recent connection to Gwadar and passes through many towns in Balochistan. Efforts must be seriously made to make it a viable project linking Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan into the Caucasus and further in to Central Asia and Eurasia for connectivity reasons.
In addition to above mentioned potential, the Iran-Pakistan gas pipe line is another potential that is still hanging around due to geo politics. The Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline project or IP Gas Pipeline Project is under construction, this is a 2,775-kilometre pipeline to deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and it must be completed at any cost. This is a key and critical project for establishing strategic relations and enhancing economic cooperation between the two countries.
It would ensure the supply of 750 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to Pakistan which is required to keep its industrial and commercial wheels in perpetual motion. Even though Iran has to be dealt carefully due to UN sanctions, Pakistan has to manage one way or another for execution of this project. It is expected that gas delivered from Iran through the pipeline will cost US$11 per million British thermal unit (MMBTU) compared to $13 per MMBTU which is expected to be price of gas delivered through the proposed Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline and $18 per MMBTU of imported LNG. The pipeline’s section in Iran was built by the National Iranian Gas Company and it used Khatam al-Anbia as a sub-contractor. In Pakistan, a consortium of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited is responsible for the construction of the pipeline.
The contract for engineering, procurement, construction and financing of the Pakistan’s section was signed with Iran’s Tadbir Energy. Iran agreed to provide a $500 million loan payable in 20 years. However, on 13-December 2013, Pakistan’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that Iran is unable to fund the project citing ‘acute financial constraint’ as the reason. Pakistani authorities however are said to remain committed with the project. Both sides have decided to constitute a working group which would re-establish the new parameters for the project, including a new time-frame and other important issues involving financing of pipeline to be laid down in the territory of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s strategy in the Eurasian geopolitical chessboard aims to strengthen cooperation with Iran and Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea to create a transit corridor that might boost Pakistani import-export and commercial trade. Pakistan wants to increase its influence and presence in the Caspian Sea, considering the outstanding geopolitical role that the region plays as an interconnector between Europe and Asia, a logistic hub, and energy market. Islamabad should discuss the possibility of strengthening cooperation with Iran and Azerbaijan to pursue this strategy and this has become even more important after strategically and tactically supporting Azerbaijan in its 44 days patriotic war for Nagorno Karabakh.
