An Exclusive Interview with: Aybek Arif Usmanov, Uzbekistan Ambassador to Pakistan speaks about SCO Summit
The “thegulfobserver.com” conducted an exclusive interview of Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Pakistan, His Excellency Aybek Arif Usmanov about the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization ( SCO ) summit being held in Samarkand on 15 and 16 instant.
In response to a question about the preparations underway in Tashkent and the morale of the Uzbek Government and the people upon assuming the Chairmanship of the SCO, he replied:
Aybek Arif Usmanov: First of all, I am very thankful to ‘The Gulf Observer’ for conducting the interview about this very very important event. Of course, it’s a great privilege and humble duty of Uzbekistan, its leadership and its people to arrange such an important meeting. The leadership of Uzbekistan is paying utmost attention to this high level summit which will be held in Samarkand on 15 and 16 September. More than 21 countries are attending the same at the level of the heads of States.
We are waiting for the delegations of the member countries, Dialogue Partners, Partners and some new countries to join the SCO family. Security, political stability, economic integration, region to region cooperation, transport, logistics, newly developed transformation process which is related to digitalization and smart technologies and industrial cooperation among SCO countries are the main trends would be the focus of the SCO summit.
It is very important to develop transport and logistics infrastructure to make a conducive environment for the businessmen, entrepreneurs and transporters to deliver their countries economic potential for the benefit of 1.9 billion population of the SCO countries. He said that women empowerment is a major issue which will be discussed on the occasion and future course of action in this regard will be worked out. There will also be sessions on telemedicine which could open new avenues for the economic cooperation among the member states. Of course, the mood and confidence of Uzbekistan’s people, the young generation, business women entrepreneurs etc. is very high because it’s a great privilege for our country to host this event of paramount importance.
The most important items on the agenda of SCO will be the trade, transport and logistics infrastructure, IT and Technology cooperation, Digital transformation, artificial intelligence and as you know Central Asian and South Asian countries are also suffering from ecological problems, there would be a green economy initiative to tackle the climate changes which has also been initiated first time by the President of Uzbekistan H.E. Shavkat Mirziyev. And that his country is also opening the SCO Industrial Zone on the occasion.
To a question about the significance of CPEC for SCO, for Pakistan and for the Central Asian States, the Ambassador said:
Aybek Arif Usmanov: The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is a project which is mostly being implemented by China and Pakistan which are two very active and important members of the SCO. It is a connectivity between Pakistan and China, the two important countries of the region. It would definitely be part of the global, Eurasian and south Asian connectivity which was initiated in 2021. When we talk about the connectivity of Central Asia and South Asia I would like to mention here that CPEC is not only limited to Pakistan and China.
For example, we have already our connections Uzbekistan railway and road connections with China via Kazakhstan but this SCO summit in Samarkand is very important project of connectivity between China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, there would be the signing ceremony of this new railway project between China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. And in Central Asian and South Asian connectivity it would be a game changer project, considered to be Termez-Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul, Jalalabad and Peshawar railway which has been started recently in the territory of Afghanistan.
So the China-Kyrgyzstan railway project would be the integral part of Termez-Peshawar trans Afghan railway connection and this railway connection which is going to Peshawar will be the genuine and integral part of the CPEC project, from Peshawar to Karachi we are having ML-1 project which has been implemented in the framework of CPEC , so we would see that from South Asia there would be an integration via Afghanistan Central Asia and from Central Asian countries , Pakistan the beneficiary of this project may get access to all Eurasian countries. Central Asia has always served as the centre of historical Silk route where the great Caravans from China bypassing Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara have been going via Turkmenistan, and Iran to the Middle East and the second road was from Central Asia via the Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan going to Turkey to the Mediterranean Sea and of course the South Asian Corridor via Central Asia was reaching to European countries. So Central Asia had been working as the central and genuine hub for the connectivity between Middle East and Asia Pacific and South Asia and Eurasia. Therefore, significance of the CPEC projects with regard to the connectivity are very important.
To another question that both Uzbekistan and Pakistan are marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations, what they have achieved during the period and what are their objectives to further strengthen their relations in the days to come, he said:
Aybek Arif Usmanov: Al-Hamdolillah, as you said this year we are celebrating very important anniversary of establishment of our diplomatic relations. Pakistan as a brotherly country, as a neighborly country was one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Uzbekistan and two embassies since then are actively operating in the capitals of the two countries, Tashkent and Islamabad.
And of course, the most important achievement of our people, our nations our economies is the regional integration process, revival of historical trade routes, historical investment projects and infrastructural, logistical and industrial cooperation.
Trade potential between the two countries is growing. The two countries last year successfully signed the Transit Trade Agreement and this year when our President H.E. Shevket Mirziyev visited capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, the two sides signed Preferential Trade Agreement and this agreement will be very soon coming into effect and after that the trade between the two countries will increased many fold.
So, important is, of course the industrial cooperation. During last 2 years our companies, our business entities have started opening new Joint Ventures. If we see five years back in Uzbekistan there were only 34 Uzbek-Pakistani Joint Ventures, now more than 170 Joint Ventures are operating. Joint Ventures, industrial cooperation, people to people contacts, business to business are of utmost importance for enhancing the multi-level cooperation between the two countries.
Educational projects are very important between the two countries. Now there are more than 1500 Pakistani students having their scholarships in 6 different cities in Uzbekistan. Moreover, the two countries should have the cultural cooperation and cultural interaction and of course Zaheer-ud-Din Baber, Allama Iqbal, Mirza Ghalib and Ali Sher Nawai legacy is the joint cultural heritage of the two countries. And I am happy to tell th “The Gulf Observer” that our Ministries and film production companies have started a project on the life and heritage of Mirza Zaheer ud Din Babar and that there would be a full-fledged film about the life and legacy of the great personality. We are also planning to host the joint concerts of the two countries in Tashkent and in Islamabad.
