Connectivity For Prosperity: How Regional Integration Can Bring Peace And Progress in South and Central Asia?

An Article By:

Juma Ahmadzai. Juma belongs to Afghanistan and he is currently studying BS in Computer Science at the Hazara University Pakistan.

This article will explain the benefits of regional connectivity and explore some ways and recent efforts of regional integration between Central and South Asia.

Before we dive deep to explore the importance of regional integration between South and Central Asia, I would like to talk about what is regional integration and how it was successful in the European Model of Unity.

Regional integration is the process of bringing together different countries in a region to promote the flow of goods and services, people and culture, peace and development. It includes forming common policies and institutions so that countries can cooperate better. Regional integration is important for peace and development because it helps to reduce conflicts between countries by binding them socially, culturally, politically, and most importantly, economically.

The European Union is considered one of the most successful examples of regional integration in the world. In the past, Europe was a collection of small countries that often fought with one another. But in the early 1950s, the European countries started working toward integration for decades and it has been a model of how a region can benefit from cooperation.

Some of the benefits are economic growth, elimination of poverty, increased trade, and more cultural exchanges. They have been able to maintain peace for over 70 years, which is something that other regions haven’t been able to do.

Before we take a closer look at the integration of South and Central Asia, let’s first go over the regional divisions of Asia.

Continent Asia is divided into six regional units. These units are:

Central Asia
Southern Asia
Western Asia
Eastern Asia
Northern Asia
Southern-Eastern Asia

South and Central Asia possess 13 countries combined. Central Asia consists of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. And South Asia consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. While Afghanistan is considered the link between these two regions.

The nations in South and Central Asia are facing an amalgam of traditional and non-traditional security threats, it is more difficult for these developing countries to counter these emerging threats because of their internal insufficiencies.

The root causes of all traditional threats in this region are ideological differences, cross-border terrorism, and territorial disputes from the past several decades. It can be considered a failure of these countries that they are dealing with the symptoms, not the causes. They are misusing their resources to encounter everyday terrorism on the national level. They could not consent to collective conflict resolution mechanisms for reducing these issues. As a result, the development of South and Central Asia halted and gave room for various non-traditional threats to thrive.

South and Central Asia face a multitude of non-traditional security challenges as well. Which complement and reinforce each other frequently. These challenges amplify the vulnerability of this region. Issues like food insecurity, water & resources scarcity, poverty, infectious diseases, irregular migration, climate change, illiteracy, unemployment, natural disasters, and so forth directly affect millions of Asians. Despite all these challenges, their governments are playing the political blame game. And instead of prioritizing these challenges, their governments believe in individual success rather than a collective solution-oriented approach.

There are three main types of regional integration, which are people-to-people, business-to-business, and government-to-government connections. These connections can create a more unified region, where societies, economies, and authorities are more closely united.

People-to-people connectivity is a long-lasting relationship. Simultaneously, it’s a more challenging linkage to build in a region like South and Central Asia, where diverse groups of people, having different religions and languages, are living together. The people-to-people connection can be done through various programs like cultural exchange, student exchange, passport-free zone, and sports programs.

One of the biggest dilemmas in people-to-people connection is the negative stereotypes or narratives that promote aggression against the other nation. There is no doubt to say negative narratives are everywhere in the world. But negative and positive narrations are like two parties in elections. There would be votes for both sides. We don’t need like-minded votes to win, but instead, we just need a majority. We don’t need to fight against the negative narratives rather we should promote positive narratives. Once we break the miscommunication and stereotypes between people then the ties will go long.

Business-to-business integration means mutual interest-based economic integration where countries in the region work together to create a better economic system for all regions involved. We have seen multiple projects like the CASA-1000, TAPI gas pipeline, Trans-Afghan Railway, CEPC Project, Chabahar Port Project, CAREC Cooperation, and so on. But unfortunately, many of these projects are not yet completed due to insecurity and conflicts. But still, various steps are required to create a strong regional community such as a free trade area, a customs union, a single market, and a single currency.

Government-to-government connectivity is the ability to communicate with another country’s government through a formal and sustained dialogue on issues such as trade, security, environmental protection, education, health, migration, and many more. It is a sort of connectivity that depends on day-to-day politics and can be built or lost quickly. But the process of political reconciliation can rebuild trust and understanding between these regions. It is also the process of restoring friendly relations among people, groups, or nations that have been engaged in conflict.

In the end, I will mention a very recent effort by Hanns Seidel Foundation and National Dialogue Forum regarding regional integration. They jointly organized a ten days long International Summer Workshop in the beautiful valley of Murree with a very energetic inauguration in Islamabad. It was my privilege to attend this workshop where I found extraordinarily talented students of different cultures and nations. We had a well-organized series of sessions every day with qualified professors, journalists, writers, transgenders, and peacebuilders. It was a fruitful workshop. I would appreciate and suggest HSF and NDF foundations arrange such workshops in the future. It will build ties between peoples of different nations that will play a role of seed in this region.

I’ll conclude this article with a quote from Malcolm X, which is,