Will Pakistan’s instability shatter Uzbekistan’s connectivity dreams?
Last week Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev paid a state visit to Pakistan - his first ever visit to the country after taking charge in Tashkent in 2016. He had, however, met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan twice earlier - during the Central Asia-South Asia connectivity conference that Tashkent hosted last year in July and thereafter in August at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in September 2021. The two had earlier held a virtual meeting on April 14, 2021where they had supported the construction of the ‘Termez–Mazar-e-Sharif–Kabul–Peshawar’ railway line, calling it an "important initiative" to establish connectivity from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea through Afghanistan and the Pakistani seaports of Karachi, Gwadar and Bin Qasim. Mirziyoyev's visit marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Uzbekistan and is expected to provide a huge fillip to bilateral ties, a wide