DUSHANBE, November 26, 2012, Asia-Plus -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated on November 24 that the New Silk Road vision aimed at developing a network of trade and transportation corridors linking markets in South and Central Asia is a key element of a long-term strategy for Afghanistan, Silk Road Newsline reports.

“We cannot shy away from big goals.  The post-World War II generation that built the modern global order and established institutions and agreements that fostered unprecedented security and prosperity are really the examples we should be following, in those footsteps, thinking bigger, working harder to create the arrangements that will give us another 100 years of security and prosperity,” Clinton said in a major speech at Singapore Management University.

“The same goes for another regional vision we call the New Silk Road, a web of trade and transportation links reaching from the steps of Central Asia to the southern tip of India,” she said.  “Forging stronger economic ties across this region is a key element in our long-term strategy for Afghanistan.  If you look at the map, you see why Afghanistan has been fought over and part of the Great Game for so many generations because of its very strategic position right in the middle of this trading route.”

“Even as we move forward with the security transition under NATO ISAF in 2014, and the end of our coalition combat mission, we are focused on shoring up Afghanistan’s economic future, because we know that, without that, stability and security will certainly be elusive,” Clinton said.

Outlined by Clinton in a speech in Chennai, India, on July 20, 2011, the New Silk Road initiative will develop a network of trade and transportation corridors linking markets in South and Central Asia, with Afghanistan at its heart.  The initiative will also allow landlocked countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan to have wider access to foreign markets.