30 years of Kyrgyzstan-Pakistan Relations.

Byline: Muhammad Asif Noor

This year, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan celebrated thirty years of their diplomatic relationship with full diplomatic vigor and excitement. Both the states continue to evolve bilateral relationships driven by goodwill, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation. Since the inception of diplomatic relations in 1992, Islamabad and Bishkek have been on close terms with each other. Pakistan was amongst the first tier of countries that immediately established diplomatic relations with Kyrgyzstan and operationalized their embassies by 1995. The cornerstone of the bilateral relationships is the trade and economy which is now being capitalized through connectivity between the Central Asian region and Pakistan. Pakistan was amongst the pioneers to understand the trade potential of Kyrgyz republic and established a branch of the State Bank of Pakistan in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Capital. It is a landlocked country sharing borders with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, the biggest and richest in the region. It reflects the trade potential because of connectivity, interdependence and interoperability of regional economies. In this regard, Kyrgyz ambassador to Pakistan expressed the willingness of his state to become part of China's Pakistan Economic Corridor while highlighting the liberal trade regime of Bishkek extending protection to investments, untapped repatriation of profits, low business cost, developed human resources, and freedom of currency exchange.

The energy cooperation is another significant product of thirty years of bilateral relationship between Bishkek and Islamabad. Central Asia- South Asia 1000 hydel electricity transmission line between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan is an energy scarce country with limited resources of cheap power production whereby Kyrgyz republic enjoys the natural luxury of abundant hydel resources. It is a two-way transmission line able to transmit surplus electricity back and forth provided by availability as Pakistan needs more energy in summer months every year. It further opens the avenues of cooperation into transmission efficiency and integration for power management and water resource management. It is worth mentioning here that the bilateral relationship has just matured and transformed into strategic partnership. In all these years, both states build mutual trust, generate good will and increase the capacity up to the point of transactional relationship...