Railways Minister Azam Khan Swati has said Pakistan is committed to the construction of Trans Afghan-Railway project.
He was talking to Afghan Charge d’Affairs Sardar Ahmed Khan Shakeeb, who called on him in Islamabad on Monday.
The Minister informed Afghan diplomat about his meeting with Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan in which transport Minister had showed great interest in construction of Trans-Afghan Railway Network.
The Charge d’Affairs appreciated Pakistan’s resolve to improve regional connectivity and informed Azam Khan Swati about Afghanistan Government’s interest in construction of Trans-Afghan Railways.
New railway project to offer access to landlocked Central Asia to Pakistan’s seaports and improve regional trade
The government officials of Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan have signed a roadmap for the construction of a mega rail link project that would offer the landlocked Central Asian region access to Pakistan’s seaports and transform regional trade links.
The joint roadmap was signed at the first meeting of the high-level trilateral working group on the construction of the ‘Mazar-e-Sharif – Kabul – Peshawar’ project held in Tashkent on February 2, 2021. The summit was attended by Pakistan’s Advisor to the PM on Commerce and Investment Razak Dawood, Uzbekistan Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov and Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar.
The high-level summit in Tashkent took place after the December 2020 meeting of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Uzbekistan’s Minister for Transport Makhkamov Ilkham in Islamabad in which they discussed rail and road connectivity.