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middle road between them – regional efforts between the five Central Asian
states – is unlikely to be taken.
Notes
1 The New Silk Road initiative spells out a vision for creating an ‘international web and network of
economic and transit connections’ that would make Afghanistan a hub for linking Central and
South Asia through creating trade and transport corridors and ‘removing bureaucratic barriers and
other impediments to the free flow of goods and people’. It was first launched by the US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton on 20 July 2011 during a speech in the Indian city of Chennai (Consulate
General of the United States, Chennai, ‘Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks on India
and the United States: a vision for the 21st century’, 20 July 2011,
http://chennai.usconsulate.gov/secclintonspeechacl_110721.html).
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