Opinion One-way Transit

The agreement does not allow India to despatch goods to Afghanistan at the Wagah border in Punjab. But it lets Afghanistan export a little more freely to India. Afghan trucks can now travel all the way to Wagah. Pakistan gets similar rights through Afghanistan to deliver goods in Central Asia. Delhi has been keen on acquiring full overland transit rights through Wagah to access the Central Asian markets. By letting goods flow on its territory to and from India,Pakistan stands to benefit as a commercial bridge between India on the one hand and Afghanistan and Central Asia.

This enlightened self-interest,however,has been trumped by the political opposition from the Pakistan Army. Overland transit has been projected as some kind of a favour for India and a threat to Pakistan. Sections of Pakistan’s security establishment have insisted that there can be no transit for India until the dispute over Jammu & Kashmir is resolved.

Beyond that extreme view,it is quite clear that India will get transit rights at Wagah only when bilateral relations improve significantly. For the moment,then,India will have to be satisfied with the half-measure that the APTTA is. From a practical perspective,India must make the best of what it has got.

The ability to import at Wagah will allow India to deepen trade relations with Afghanistan. India is a major market for Afghan agricultural produce. Delhi must now step up its assitance to improve agricultural productivity in Afghanistan and consider duty free access to food products from Afghanistan.

As Kabul begins to tap into its vast mineral wealth,Indian corporations can now bid for the mining projects in Afghanistan and export natural resources and/or refined products from there to India.

Market Access

While India is considerable distance away from the ideal of a liberal three-way trade and transit arrangement with Pakistan and Afghanistan,Delhi must look ahead and welcome the plans announced by Kabul and Islamabad for greater economic integration between themselves,which could contribute to economic growth and stability of the troubled Pashtun lands across the Durand Line.

In the joint statement issued last Saturday in Islamabad,Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistan counterpart Asif Ali Zardari emphasised the importance of building special economic and industrial zones on and across their Pashtun borderlands. They also “called upon their friends and partners and on the international community as a whole to assist and support development and economic opportunities by providing immediate preferential market access to Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

On its part,India should be ready where possible to participate in the building of these zones,at least on the Afghan side. India must also announce,unilaterally,liberal market access to the goods produced in these zones. Such an approach has a merit of its own — in nudging the Pashtuns away from fighting to productive economic activity. It could also,hopefully,help reduce Pakistan’s misperceptions about India’s role in Afghanistan.

Rail Networks

At their meeting Karzai and Zardari agreed to promote trans-border infrastructure across the Durand Line. The two leaders reported progress on building the expressway between Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan and Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. They also unveiled plans to extend the highway all the way to Herat in western Afghanistan. Kabul and Islamabad are also discussing plans to build a railway from Peshwar to Jalalabad.

In the late 19th and early 20th century,Kabul prohibited rail links with its neighbours. Afghanistan’s anti-railway policy was part of the strategy of a weak state to preserve its independence and autonomy from the colonial powers. As a result at the turn of the 21st century,Afghanistan had barely 25 km of railway line on its territory.

Today as the land-locked Afghanistan seeks connectivity to transform itself,many of its neighbours — Iran to the west,Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the north and Pakistan from the East — are looking at extending their rail networks into the country. While Pakistan may block India’s physical access to Afghanistan,it is in Delhi’s long-term interest to promote trans-border connectivity in the lands beyond the Indus. Some day in the not too distant future,India should be able to connect its own transport infrastructure to that emerging in the Af-Pak region.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research,Delhi