Kazakhstan has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Uzbekistan and the UAE for a rail connection to Pakistan. The three countries want to connect Central Asia to the Indian Ocean, but infrastructure is currently lacking. For now, they agreed to evaluate their options before starting implementation.
The Central Asia–South Asia (CASA) railway would start in Kazakhstan, transit Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and link up to Pakistani ports. There has been international interest in such a rail connection for over two years now, but nothing tangible has happened yet to implement it. The region is geographically and politically complex, which makes implementation difficult.
This MoU may move the project forward. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have functional rail networks, whereas the UAE brings technical expertise in infrastructure and investment projects, says the Kazakh transport ministry.
“Bringing these capabilities together will enable us to move on to the practical development of the CASA project and the identification of the best mechanisms for its implementation”, the ministry added.
Together, they want to conduct technical and economic evaluations, analyse their options and study the “suitability of developing the necessary rail infrastructure”. The establishment of a dedicated working group is among the options.
The new MoU is not the first one to examine the Central Asia–Pakistan route. Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to study a trans-Afghan railway with a similar scope too last year.