The Role of the Lazuli Road in Afghanistan’s Agriculture Development

الملخص

 Abstract
Afghanistan is a landlocked country that exports its products to other
countries by air and land. However, this trade (especially transit)
with neighboring countries has always faced many challenges, and
it is often affected by these neighbors (countries) under various
pretexts, which is the main issue of this research. The new AsiaEurope transit route, dubbed the Lapis Lazuli Route, connects
Afghanistan to the Black Sea through Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan,
and Georgia, and then to the open waters by passing through
Türkiye. This research mainly aims to introduce the opportunities
and challenges of the Lapis Lazuli Road, describe the characteristics
of this transit route, and express the importance (economic, political,
and temporal) of the Lapis Lazuli Road for Afghanistan. The
method of this research is descriptive-analytical. The findings of the
research indicate that the Lapis Lazuli route is the shortest, simplest,
and most reliable transit route from Afghanistan to open waters.
This transit route starts from the ports of Aqina (Faryab) and
Torghundi (Herat) in Afghanistan and ends at the port of
Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan. It then connects to the Telfis region
of Georgia via Baku, Azerbaijan. From Telfis, it goes to Kars,
Turkey, and from there it connects to Istanbul and then to Europe.
This research concludes that the Lapis Lazuli Road is a corridor that
passes through Afghanistan's northern neighbouring countries, and
those countries have been less competitive and politically tense with
Afghanistan in the past. However, problems such as numerous
railway gauges, low budgets, etc., in Afghanistan are obstacles to
this transit route, and more agreements must be made between the
mentioned countries to coordinate customs operations from origin
to destination, establish a single tariff, manage security challenges,
etc.
Keyword: Afghanistan, Agriculture Development, Aqina, Europe,
Lapis Lazuli Road, Torghundi.