Afghan and Pakistani MPs Participate in Consultation on Afghanistan and Regional Energy Trade

Members of the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention, from Afghanistan and Pakistan, participated in a conference on Afghanistan and regional energy trade, held in Islamabad on September 2-4, 2013.

Entitled “Afghanistan Reconnected: Linking Energy Suppliers to Consumers in Asia”, the conference is part of the “Abu Dhabi Process 2013/2014”, a high-level consultation series organized by the EastWest Institute over the next two years on the issue of “Economic Security in Afghanistan Post-2014”.

With a special focus on the potential of Afghanistan to act as a transit country and future producer of energy, the presentations and debates in Islamabad addressed the potential for regional energy trade between suppliers and the energy markets especially in South Asia.

About fifty representatives from governments, parliaments and the business sector from Afghanistan and the region as well as from international organizations, Europe and the U.S. participated in the high-level consultation.

Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz addressed the conference as well as Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. Both senior officials welcomed the platform the EastWest Institute provided at the conference, as they see regional opportunities for energy trade as well as domestic needs for energy as a prerequisite for economic growth.

The initiative of integrating parliamentarians into the "Abu Dhabi Process 2013/2014" is funded through the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a means to enrich the debate and to offer Members of Parliament the opportunity to partake in informal consultations on issues in the public interest and in consultations regarding large-scale economic development projects.

Click here for the conference conclusions and recommendations.

Click here to read EWI Board Member Ikram Sehgal's report on the conference.

Click here for an overview of press releases covering the conference. 

Photo by EWI/SDPI.