Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday announced Pakistan has signed a trilateral railway agreement with Uzbekistan and Afghanistan to boost regional connectivity and economic integration.
The Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (UAP) Railway Project aims to build a rail link connecting Uzbekistan with Pakistan via Afghanistan. The project would facilitate Central Asian states’ access to Pakistani seaports, promoting regional stability, growth and development.
In a posting on X announcing the agreement, Dar congratulated the people and the governments of the three nations on the signing of the Framework Agreement on the Joint Feasibility Study for the Naibabad–Kharlachi rail link under the UAP Railway Corridor. “I also thank the foreign ministers of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan for their support and commitment for timely signing of the agreement. We remained closely engaged throughout the negotiation process to finalize the details,” he added.
The foreign minister said the railway corridor was a major milestone in advancing regional connectivity and economic integration. He said it would connect Central Asian countries to Pakistani seaports through Afghanistan. The signing of the agreement, he said, was a result of the leadership and commitment of the PDM government (2022–23), when as finance minister he was tasked with leading the effort with “brotherly countries.”
In a statement, the Foreign Office said Dar had witnessed the signing of the agreement alongside Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi, special representative for Afghanistan, and secretary for railways.
Earlier, the Foreign Office said the foreign minister’s visit to Kabul, where the agreement was signed, underscored the importance Islamabad attaches to the UAP Railway Project. It said the signing of the Framework Agreement on Joint Feasibility Study between the three countries marked an important step toward its implementation.
During his Kabul visit, Dar also met Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The two sides called for strengthened efforts to maintain the momentum in bilateral relations and to expand cooperation in trade, transit and security domains to the mutual benefit of both peoples.
“They agreed to remain engaged to achieve the full potential of regional economic development, including through realization of trans-regional connectivity,” it said.