The Cold War is over. Introducing one of the few countries in the world which has a close friendship with both China and a strategic relationship with the US (at least for Afghanistan)–and is now developing a relationship with Russia.

A few months back Russia proposed the funding of a road and rail link from Islamabad to Ferghana and Dushambe. Now the Russian leader Medvedev has called a follow-up to the last summit. The meeting scheduled in Sochi in August 2010.

Ambassador Bhadrakumar of the Asia Times says:

The Kremlin views Afghanistan also through the prism of Medvedev’s “reset” with Obama. Meanwhile, Medvedev has invited his Pakistani, Afghan and Tajik counterparts to a summit meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in August. Russia is also expanding its cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by supplying military hardware such as helicopters for the Afghan operations and facilitating the so-called northern supply route by land and air.

Russia is funding massive train and energy projects in Tajikistan, Afghanistan & Pakistan. The indications are that Russia has stepped into the vacuum created by the never ending American war in Afghanistan and Moscow is now reaching out to Pakistan. While the Western media and part of the Pakistani media only concentrated on the issues of terror, much more was discussed. In fact it would not be an exaggeration if we said, that this is one of the most important meetings for Central Asia ever. For the first time Tajikistan will have access to the warm waters of the Arabian sea–a dream of Catherine the Great of Russia.

The Axis of Logix discusses the Russian-Pakistani relationship and proposes more movement in this regard.

Russia has indicated its readiness to open doors, even for military cooperation. On the heels of meeting between Russian President Midvale and Pakistani President Zardari during the SCO conference last June, came General Kayani’s visit to Moscow that apparently explored military cooperation. This signals a policy shift and indicates that Pakistan is not ruling out such an arrangement with Russia in the future.The Russian Duma has established a Group of Friendship with Pakistan – a measure that should now be reciprocated by Pakistan’s National Assembly. The Inter-governmental Commission on Trade and Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation needs to be made functional and trade and investment potential explored. Russia is in a position to help in the energy and power sector, which is critically important for Pakistan.

While the Pakistani-Russian relationship is covering new ground, the Moscow-Delhi relationship has various question marks attached to it. Ambassador Bhadrakumar writes as follows.

A recent article in the Foreign Ministry’s journal criticized India’s US-centric diplomacy and hinted at the growing need for Moscow to “de-hyphenate” its ties with Delhi and Islamabad. There seems to be some heartburn in Moscow especially that the US is poised to overtake Russia as India’s biggest arms supplier. Moscow wouldn’t like cooperation over Afghanistan to be a stand-alone enterprise limited to mitigating Delhi’s current regional isolation.

The map of the K-Highway and the one on Chitral shows the Durrah/Dorah Pass which is already linked by Pakistani roads. According to the plan, The Dorah Pass will be used to build a road cutting through Afghanistan into Tajikistan. It is important to remember that the think strip of Afghan land of (Wakkhan panhandle in Badakhshan province) was inserted as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires. The area of around the Afghan city of Langhar Aab e Vakhan and Darya Panj was the buffer. The proposed Gwader to Dushambe road will cross the Aab e Vakhan from Chitral and then hook up with the major Tajik town of Eshkashem. China is also working to hook up roads and rails to the region. It is obvious that this road will be extended to China and to Beijing (through Tajikistan and also through the Karakorum Highway).

The Tajikistan Pakistan Highway simply resurrects the old trade routes that existed between the people of the Indus and those in Tajikistan. Later the Greeks, the Persian, and the Turks cake down the same passes to the fertile plains of the Punjab.

Chitral is already hooked up to the K-Highway with China. The link to Tajikistan would be easy to maintain. Then The Pakistan-Tajikistan Highway could be linked up to China from Tajikistan also. That would provide Pakistan and China alternate routes.

It is pedagogical to note that while Delhi’s first interaction with Tajikistan was with military Air Bases, Pakistan has slowly worked itself into the Tajik and Russian equation with massive program of economic development that will impact the common people and be advantageous to people of region. What is most important is the fact that not only has Russia brokered the economic integration of the region, it will fund the program and ask Europe and the G-8 to help.
… the joint declaration signed by the presidents of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan on the last day of the visit they committed their countries to “construction of rail roads and highways” so as to give “Tajikistan access to the sea through the Pakistani sea ports”.
Meeting with the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan, Medevdev called building energy infrastructure a vital prerequisite for prosperity. “Energy projects are what really help governments that need to strengthen their economy,” he said. “Assistance must not just be a one-off, it should be aimed toward the future.” Boston Globe
Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Russia and agreed to open up trade and travel between Pakistan and Tajikistan on the one hand and link the three countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan through a 1340-kilometre long road that would connect Pakistan from Chitral via the Durrah pass into Afghanistan and on to the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on the other.
Pakistan and Tajikistan sides discussed in detail four options for building the road link. Out of the four options the NHA had recommended the option of building the road link form Chitral-Durrah Chitral-Durrah “>pass-Iskatul-Gulkhana-Ishkashim. The total distance from Chitral to Ishkashim is 200 kilometres out of which 82 kilometres is in Pakistan and 118 kilometres in Afghanistan.
Briefing newsmen on the visit spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that the three heads of state also agreed to meet in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe every year to review the progress made in their commitments and also to further boost the social, political and economic ties between them.
the three countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan also agreed on the “establishment of regional electricity networks” and emphasised “early implementation of CASA-1000 and establishment of the Central Asia-South Asia energy market”. Statesman

China rail integrates Afghanistan, Tajikistan, & Pakistan. China is known for walking silently and brandishing a big stick. The Chinese plan to link Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan via a rail link is a seminal event in the history of their region. This news item did not make a headline in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Very quietly China is beginning to encroach upon Afghanistan and ensuring that it is integrated with the economies of Tajikisan, Western China and Pakistan. Linking Tajikistan and Afghanistan to Gwader is a very strategic step that will pay dividends in the long run.

Indeed, the cost of building so much infrastructure in a volatile security environment like Afghanistan is prohibitive for many private firms. But Niklas Norling, an expert on China and Central Asia at the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development, says the price tag is tolerable for a Chinese state firm because the project contributes to Beijing’s plans for the development of western China and its regional trade links.

“You have to see this in the context of China’s great western development program, which has led to major investment into the western provinces [of China] and, of course, also cross border connections to Central Asia, South Asia, and Iran,”Norling says. “In order to develop the west [of China], they need energy resources, and they need other resource materials. So far, Afghanistan has remained virtually untouched by Beijing’s concerns, in contrast to China’s involvement in Central Asia, Pakistan, and Iran.

“The past few years have seen investments into the Karakorum Highway in Pakistan, the Gwadar port [in Karachi], [and] a multibillion-dollar pipeline from Kazakhstan to Xinjiang [Uyghur Autonomous Region]. China has signed a $100 billion, 25-year energy contract with Iran. And so on and so on,” Norling continues. “So, of course, this forms part of a greater strategy.”