During the SCO summit in Qingdao in June 2018 the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat
Mirziyoyev said that Uzbekistan supports the construction of the railway lines Mazare Sharif -
Herat, China - Kyrgyzstan ― Uzbekistan, and the development of the trans-regional corridors
Central Asia-Persian Gulf, North-South and East-West.
VII. "China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan". The construction and launch of this transport project
have been discussed for many years. The project demonstrates relevance in the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization space because China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are members of this
organization and in case of functioning, this transport project, trade and economic relations will
increase and expand not only among the project participants, but also among the countries of
Central Asia and China. In particular, according to the experts’ estimates, the functioning of the
project will allow to: 1) to transport goods to the Eastern Europe countries; 2) to reduce the time
of delivery of goods from China and the countries of Central Asia to the countries of Europe and
the Middle East; 3) to import Chinese goods to Central Asian countries; 4) to export goods from
Uzbekistan to foreign countries.
Mazar-e-Sharif-Herat. Uzbekistan borders with Afghanistan are building a special foreign
policy with this country. The development of transport relations with Afghanistan and the
establishment of new railways in the future will open and provide Central Asia with the shortest
access to the ports of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf and will connect South Asia to the
markets of Europe and China. One of the strategic transport facilities connecting Uzbekistan and
Afghanistan is the bridge "Friendship"
(Dusty Puli), which connects Termez
and Hairaton. In Afghanistan, there
are about 15 border crossing points,
but it was through the checkpoint on
the bridge "Friendship" that enters the
bulk of imports into the country. In the
future, the launch of the Mazar-e-
Sharif-Herat transport project with a
length of 760 km will contribute to: 1)
the increase in the transportation and
delivery of cargo from Uzbekistan to
the ports of the Persian Gulf; 2) the
access of Uzbekistan to the sea
through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
IX. "Central Asia-Persian Gulf". In April 2016, the Agreement on the Establishment of an
International Transport and Transit Corridor (Ashgabat Agreement) entered into force. Ashgabat
Agreement was signed between the Governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Sultanate
of Oman, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan on 25 April 2011. In 2017, within this
transport corridor, the Turkmenabad-Farab railway and road bridges through Amu Darya began
to function, which made it possible to increase the volume of freight traffic by 2.5 times.
According to the experts, functioning of this transport corridor will be the key to prosperity
and the development of economic cooperation between the countries of the project, and to the
creation of new jobs, construction of new innovative logistics hubs, as well as creating conditions
for raising foreign investment.
Thus, these transport projects are very relevant for Central Asia, including Uzbekistan. In
the context of globalization of the world economy, the development of transport capabilities is
one of the important areas of integration processes, the issues of developing new transport and
transit corridors, creating conditions for the efficient transportation and handling of Uzbekistan’s
cargo in neighboring countries.
Today, Uzbekistan is already considering its participation in the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
transport corridor, active work is carried out within the trans-Afghan corridor, China-Kyrgyzstan-
Uzbekistan and Central Asia-Persian Gulf. This confirms a keen interest in turning the Central
Asian region into crossroads of transport corridors connecting East, West, North and South.
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