The Trans-Afghan Railway: A Lifeline for Central Asia’s Connectivity Amid Geopolitical Tensions
(Ayesha Mahnoor) Introduction On July 17, 2025, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan signed a landmark intergovernmental agreement in Kabul to develop a feasibility study for the Trans-Afghan Railway, a 681-kilometre line linking Termez in Uzbekistan to Kharlachi in Pakistan via Afghanistan’s Naibabad, Maidan Shar, and Logar regions. This initiative, hailed as a breakthrough by Deputy Minister…