Page 23 - bne_newspaper_February_01_2019

Eurasia
February 1, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
That could lead to an eventual full pullout of US combat troops — though, in return, the Taliban have to enter talks with the Afghan government and agree on a lasting ceasefire. The Taliban have so far refused to hold direct negotiations with Afghan government officials, whom they tend to dismiss as "puppets".
Other regional projects reliant on Afghanistan
TAPI is not the only Turkmen project that would benefit from a more peaceful Afghanistan. The Asian Development Bank-supported Turkmeni- stan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) power transmis- sion line project — essentially running parallel to the TAPI investment — is designed for the annual transfer of at least 2,000 megawatts of power in its first phase, with Afghanistan to receive “$200mn in transmission rights”. A number of similar projects are set to follow as Turkmenistan aims to ramp up its electricity exports to 6.9bn kWh by 2020 up from the currently estimated 3bn kWh. Turkmenistan
and Afghanistan in July announced plans to officially launch the Rabat-Kashan to Kalay-Nau 110 kV power transmission line.
Another notable project includes a railroad linking Tajikistan to Turkmenistan via Afghanistan with the aim of connecting Tajikistan to a Turkmen Caspian Sea port.
Uzbekistan in 2017-2018 moved to cut electricity export tariffs charged to Afghanistan and pledged to help its neighbour build a railway between the two countries “in order to have a direct route to Iran”. The Afghan railway administration earlier noted that the new northwest link would in fact help increase trade between Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. That would also be in line with China’s massive Belt and Road trade infrastructure initiative which seeks to form transit zones in Central Asia for Chinese goods exports headed to Europe and other destinations.