Russian Ambassador to Pakistan Albert Khorev told , TASS , over the weekend that his nation supports Pakistan and , Afghanistan’s individual counter-terrorism work. He therefore added that it encourages both of them to work together to overcome boundary disputes via bilateral or multilateral methods.
This suggests that they want to serve as mediators. China has previously tried to do so but has  , struggled to achieve something, yet Russia has a better chance of success.
Russia’s great geo-economic plan , in this piece of Eurasia is to pioneer opposite connection and electricity corridors to India via Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. To that end, Russia has maintain likewise outstanding relationships with Afghanistan and Pakistan, help solve their border tensions, and then do the same , with Pakistan and India’s.
The first step has already been achieved upon , carefully partnering with the Taliban , past summer and finally clinching a , strategic reference alliance with Pakistan , in December.
The next step will be much harder to complete, but that’s the reason for Ambassador Khorev’s most recent comments regarding Russia’s assistance for Pakistan and Afghanistan’s individual counter-terrorism efforts.
He acknowledged the host nation’s issues with Afghan-emanating terrorist threats on the one hand, but he shied away from blaming the Taliban for them like Islamabad does, and otherwise offered to give them flimsy “necessary help.”
Each person appears to have their own means of empowerment, with the first one being political support for halting all extremist invasion from Afghanistan, and the second being training their special forces to combat ISIS-K.
Left unsaid is any reference to Pakistan’s claims that the Taliban backs the TTP (” Pakistani Taliban” ) and , other terrorist groups, however, though commenting on this either way would ruin Russia’s careful balancing act.
China has already taken the same position on this issue, which is in contrast to Russia’s geo-economic perspective, which favors strengthening Afghan-Pakistani ties over the course of its wider geographical strategy.
Since the first uses the Belt & Road Initiative’s China-Pakistan Economic Corridor premier to achieve this goal while the second has road exposure to it via Central Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan don’t need to do business with China on their own country.
So, although China does indeed like its neighboring associates to work more closely up, this isn’t required to advance its geo-economic objectives. Russia’s great geo-economic program necessitates Afghanistan and Pakistan patching up their problems in order to create horizontal connectivity and energy corridors that may one day preferably approach India. The situation is completely different.
Those two, therefore, obviously know that Russia has substantially greater bets in counseling than China does.
After their tensions are resolved, neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan would receive any more financial benefits from China, but Pakistan may eventually get more direct overland connectivity with Russia and perhaps even energy from it as well, if that happens, both via Afghanistan.
Also, Afghanistan may benefit from its intermediary role in these hallways, especially if they ever extend to India. If Beijing were to effectively resolve between them, no such perks would be derived from China.
In response, it is incumbent on Russia to make innovative use of innovative means to advance this political process to the fullest of its ability, including sharing detailed plans of its proposed energy and connectivity investments in both Afghanistan and Pakistan if they agree to resolve their differences.
These may include certain tasks, the estimated number that’ll be invested, lending terms if required, the chance for joint rights of some kind, and the local work that might be employed.
It might still not be enough for a breakthrough, but it would still be more than what China has offered to do if they make peace, which is nothing. In addition, if the political and/or military environment changes and they decide to fix their issues, they would have a mutual interest in revitalizing Russia’s plans.
Russia is expected to push for peace, and its efforts will be more effective than China’s, but it’s too early to say what will happen either way.
This , article was first published on Andrew Korybko’s Substack and is republished with kind permission. Become an Andrew Korybko Newsletter subscriber , here.