President Hamid Karzai is at the 12th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the Azerbaijan capital Baku. He will address the representatives of different regional countries including Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is an intergovernmental organization involving seven Asian and three Eurasian nations, part of the South-central Asian Union. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade, and investment opportunities. The ECO is an ad hoc organization under the United Nations Charter (Chap. VIII). The common objective is to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union.
ECO's secretariat and cultural department are located in Tehran, its economic bureau is in Turkey and its scientific bureau is situated in Pakistan. The organization's population is 416,046,863 and the area is 8,620,697 km². The organization was founded by Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.
This is a golden opportunity for President to further strengthen ties with the regional countries and pave the way for regional cooperation, especially for the improvement of regional trade and development, which will support Afghanistan to a large extent after the withdrawal of international troops.
President Karzai will also visit Kuwait to attend the first summit of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). ACD is a body created in 2002 to promote Asian cooperation at a continental level and to help integrate separate regional cooperation organizations such as ASEAN, SAARC and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The main objectives of the ACD are to: 1) Promote interdependence among Asian countries in all areas of cooperation by identifying Asia's common strengths and opportunities which will help reduce poverty and improve the quality of life for Asian people whilst developing a knowledge-based society within Asia and enhancing community and people empowerment; 2) Expand the trade and financial market within Asia and increase the bargaining power of Asian countries in lieu of competition and, in turn, enhance Asia's economic competitiveness in the global market; 3) Serve as the missing link in Asian cooperation by building upon Asia's potentials and strengths through supplementing and complementing existing cooperative frameworks so as to become a viable partner for other regions; 4) Ultimately transform the Asian continent into an Asian Community, capable of interacting with the rest of the world on a more equal footing and contributing more positively towards mutual peace and prosperity. This summit of ACD will cover issues related to energy supply, food security, financing of projects, IT and foreign investment in the form of sovereign wealth funds.
It is really important for Afghanistan in the contemporary scenario that it must strengthen the regional ties along with the international ones. Afghanistan along with its neighbors can form a cooperation that can not only support the country but the region as well. Some of the basic problems in Afghanistan are similar to those in the neighboring countries; therefore, proper collaboration can really assist them in resolving those problems. Moreover, Afghanistan has yet to make a lot of improvements and developments in the near future so as to become stable socially, politically and economically.
Therefore, different sorts of strategic cooperation with the neighbors would pave the way for it. However, the history of Afghanistan's relations with the neighboring countries has not been very much extra-ordinary. There have been political changes, movements and wars within the country that have kept on testing the regional relations and have made them fluctuate to a great extent. Moreover, these fluctuations and experiences have a lesson to teach to the entire region that only supportive role with the neighboring countries can guarantee bliss, tranquility and progress to the region and regional players have to learn this lesson.
Afghanistan should also make sure that it has to establish and promote healthy relations with the regional countries so that it should be able to go through the current transition period and ensure unwavering future. So as to develop the country, a great acceleration in economic activities and political improvements would be required and with the assistance of the neighbors and neighbors of neighbors the task would not be very difficult to accomplish.
On the other hand, it must also be kept in mind that Afghanistan, because of its strategic importance and geographical location can be of great importance to the neighbors as well. Many strategic and economic projects are highly dependent on Afghan land and decision making people in the country can really cash all these opportunities by strengthening ties and cementing relations for different spheres of life.
At the same time this important fact should never be forgotten that the regional cooperation can really work for Afghanistan and for the region only when the involved countries must work out their differences that cause the different perceptions of the strategic challenges and ultimately result into clash of interests. The regional countries, with few exceptions, at the moment seem to be going on the divergent directions so as to achieve the regional interests. The regional countries seem to have different perceptions regarding the ongoing issues and process relevant to Afghanistan and region.
They have different opinions, as evident to a certain degree from their statements in the Conference, regarding the ongoing transition period, reconciliation process with Taliban, withdrawal of international troops and the permanent US bases in Afghanistan. On the other hand their veiled policies show further discrepancies. The purpose of such a conclusion is not to say that the regional countries must not have their own interests.
They should have and each one of them must pursue its own national interests but their regional cooperation can only be fruitful once they discover the issues that are common to the region and influence all of them alike. For that issue they have to sit together and must negotiate upon their differences and try to find out a single course of action. Insecurity and terrorism form a common dilemma for the entire region in general and for Afghanistan in particular. A unanimous decision regarding the issue must be taken by the regional countries so as to form a real cooperation that has the capacity to assist Afghanistan and the region.