EurasiaNet.Org has an excellent article written by Joshua Kucera, which looks at how in an effort to counter US attempts to geopolitically isolate Iran, officials in Tehran are trying to implement an ambitious program centering on trade and infrastructure investment in Central Asia and the Caucasus."Tehran is focusing most of its attention on areas with which Iran has strong cultural and historical ties, such as Tajikistan and western Afghanistan. But the strategy also involves other countries in the former Soviet Union, including Uzbekistan and Armenia. Tehran’s aim is to create a diffuse patchwork of regional ties and institutions that can serve as a counterweight to US geopolitical pressure, according to two Iranian academics, Mohsen Milani of the University of South Florida, and Abbas Maleki of the International Institute for Caspian Studies in Tehran.
The two outlined the Iranian countermoves at an April 5 talk in Washington, sponsored by the Central Asia Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
Iran's preferred mode of investment is via massive infrastructure projects. For instance, Iran is building the Anzab tunnel that will connect the northern and southern parts of Tajikistan, and will eventually provide a road corridor from China through Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. It is also constructing the Sangtudinskaya-II hydroelectric plant in Tajikistan as part of a total $700 million investment in electricity in that country.
Iran is also among the leading donors to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. It pledged $560 million at the Tokyo donors’ conference in 2002 – all of which is expected to be disbursed by the end of 2006 – and promised another $100 million at the London conference held last January".
Full article:
