DUSHANBE, March 16, 2011, Asia-Plus — Uzbekistan will do everything it possibly can in order to uphold its interests in the region, Tajik political scientist Davlat Usmon said, commenting on the article published the Pakistani newspaper,
Dawn
.
According to him, Uzbek authorities’ response to the Central Asia-South Asia Regional Energy and Trade (CASA-1000) project could be predictable.
“Uzbekistan has always opposed construction of the Kambarata-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in Kyrgyzstan and Roghun HPP in Tajikistan,” said the expert, “But it is no secret that these hydropower plants will be the main sources of electrical power that will be exported to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Uzbekistan just wants to show once again its dissatisfaction with these projects.”
According to him, Uzbekistan will continue using such methods in the future as well in order to show the world its dissatisfaction with any project that will concern these two power plants under construction.
Davlat Usmon considers that Uzbek government’s ‘letter of disapproval’ for the CASA-1000 project has political motives rather than economic or environmental ones.
We will recall that an article “Uzbekistan opposes Pakistan’s plan to import electricity from Tajikistan” authored by Khaleeq Kiani and published in
Dawn
on March 13 says Uzbekistan has opposed Pakistan’s plans to import 1000MW of electricity from Tajikistan through a 750-kilometer transmission line through Afghanistan, saying the proposed project in its present form would be in violation of international laws.
According to the article, informed sources told
Dawn
on Sunday that Uzbek Ambassador to Pakistan Arif Karimov met senior officials of the Ministry of Water and Power last week and handed over his government’s ‘letter of disapproval’ for the proposed project. He is reported to have said that all the low riparian states — not only Uzbekistan but Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan too — were opposed to the project because a mandatory Trans-boundary Environmental Impact Assessment (TEIA) report for the development of Roghun hydroelectricity project had not been shared by Tajikistan for clearance.
Uzbek envoy said the proposed transmission line from Tajikistan would cover a distance of 562 kilometers in Afghanistan. “The point to ponder about is how Afghanistan would assure the safety and reliability of electricity supplied through this trouble spot and essentially most vulnerable part of the globe”.
