Uzbekistan-Pakistan Bet On Trade Corridors – OpEd
The way Uzbekistan and Pakistan treat their relationship today is not a good word and visit. They are trying to make it a working machine having a pronounced political cog on the surface and delivery targets under it. That is significant, since there are no concepts lacking in South and Central Asia. They as well possess weak follow through, absence of corridors, and too many projects on paper.
This was the point at which President Shavkat Mirziyoyev undertook a state visit to Islamabad on 5 and 6 February 2026 as the host of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, where the leader had the inaugural sitting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. It is this kind of institutional action that changes the atmosphere of a partnership. As soon as there is a mechanism in place that is standing to give instructions, monitor and write decisions by top leaders, bureaucracies no longer wait till the photo opportunity comes but instead set timelines to work towards.
The most strategic part in a Pakistani mindset is not so complex: the geography finally has its plan. Pakistan is openly creating itself as the transit as well as sea line to a landlocked central Asia that needs a dependable connection to the world markets. In its joint declaration which it made on behalf of Pakistan, it said that it was willing to permit Uzbek transit cargo to its seaports and support it through a global standard road network. That is not charity. It is an offer of logistics, ports, and services of Pakistani, to be a key point of the Eurasian trade, and to incur the charges, workforce, and tactical location they involve.
There is a trade ambition upon which a figure is added, and that is important. Both sides have reiterated the bilateral trade target of US 2 billion in 2029 when the two countries are still trying to achieve the five-year action plan and expansion of Preferential trade Agreement with the addition of more product lists. Vanity measurements can also be an object of targeting, but they require that ministries and business community ask difficult questions regarding tariffs and the standards and banking and shipping time and dispute management.
The system of architecture of the private sector is getting even more acute. Chambers, regions and firms are to be tied replicable using new institutional bridges that include an Uzbek Pakistani Business Council and an interregional forum structure, outside headline business forums. It is significant because there will not be the growth of trade based on the single mega deal. It will be the brainchild of dozens of mid-sized relationships, which need matchmaking, less challenging visas, regulations that can be predicted and where issues can be aired out in advance before they become political nuisance.
Its real strategic foundation is connectivity, and the Uzbekistan Afghanistan Pakistan railway project is the most apparent case of it. In the instance of Uzbekistan, the optionality that can be offered is through the rail linkage to the South. In the instance of Pakistan, it is to become the implementable middle-ground between the Central Asia and Arabian Gulf. However, it also brings some reality: there is no corridor without the stabilization of the base in Afghanistan and the possibility of security provision of trade. The good thing about this is that regional peace and counter terrorism are being discussed as part of the economics by both parties and not a different file that can be left unnoticed until a crisis occurs.
The partnership will be industrial in that the joint venture is able to transfer the transit expenses to the real value creation. The idea of the jointly controlled economic or industrial zones per country which is oriented on the manufacture of the finished goods which might be sold to the third markets is the sign that there is the desire to become the members of the bigger Eurasian supply chains rather than just to exchange the raw materials. To accomplish this undertaking, Pakistan must work on the investor trust, reliability in power and utilities and expedited customary system. In its turn, Uzbekistan must retain the market accessibility and ease the way of forming the joint venture by simplifying the registration, financing, and operation of the business and enterprise. Otherwise, it will turn the zones into ritualistic.
The scope of sector work is peculiar and promising regarding this point of time. The publicly traded contracts cover information technologies and digital, agriculture and agricultural research, mining and geology, textile and clothing, pharmaceutical regulation, port services, ecology, radiation and nuclear safety and management of emergencies. The combination of that implies that two governments are not thinking in one line and one commodity. It also gives Pakistan a chance to show the world that it is also capable of competing in services, engineering goods and regulated industries and not necessarily low margin exports only.
In this case, soft power is no show, it is an oil. The relationship can be expanded in the areas of cultural cooperation, heritage work which is linked with Baburid legacy, tourism planning and education connection in a way that it is no longer at the mercy of a specific project and a specific cycle of cabinet. A working dialogue between students and the researchers, between the tour operators and the city level governments can ensure that a partnership is less likely to fall and can be an easy defence back home.