Kazakhstan has offered to fully fund a proposed railway linking Central Asia to Pakistan’s ports through Afghanistan, a move that could revive long-stalled regional connectivity plans and strengthen Pakistan’s role as a transit hub for landlocked countries.
Under the proposed route, cargo would travel from Kazakhstan through Turkmenistan to western Afghanistan before entering Pakistan at Chaman and joining the national rail network.
The project would connect Kazakhstan to Pakistan’s Karachi and Gwadar ports, providing Central Asia with direct access to warm waters while giving Pakistan a long-sought overland trade corridor to the region.
“This is not aid. We are not asking Pakistan for a single penny,” Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Yerzhan Kistafin, said in an interview with local news channel. “It is a mutually beneficial investment.”
For years, Pakistan has sought to position itself as a gateway for Central Asian trade, offering its ports to landlocked economies as part of a strategy to integrate South and Central Asia. Its ambitions, however, have faced setbacks, including border skirmishes with Afghanistan last October, which forced Islamabad to close key crossings.
Kistafin stressed that the rail project would treat Afghanistan as a transit partner, aiming to promote trade, connectivity, and stability in the region.
