Turkmenistan and Afghanistan enter new level of relations as Ashgabat has hosted the high-level talks between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on July 3.
Overall the top-level talks focused on the regional safety and bilateral cooperation.
Particular attention in this regard was paid to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. At present, construction work on Turkmenistan’s section of the TAPI gas pipeline is underway.
TAPI will make it possible to deliver gas from Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world for its gas reserves, to large and promising markets of South and Southeast Asia. The pipeline will run from Galkynysh – the largest gas field in Turkmenistan – through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, and finally reach the Fazilka settlement located near the India-Pakistan border.
Another important project that the presidents mulled was the railway from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan. Construction of the Atamyrat-Ymamnazar-Akina section of the Asian transnational line was completed last year.
Moreover, the leaders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan underlined the possibility of increasing the volumes of the mutual trade.
They noted that the trade and economic sphere was one of the priority areas of the bilateral cooperation. In 2016, the gross volume of the trade turnover between the two countries made up $547 million.
Supply of Turkmen electrical energy to Afghanistan was an urgent subject of the negotiations. Joint works for expansion of energy line networks by construction of additional production powers in Afghanistan were discussed.
Taking into account new energy powers in Lebap and Mary Velayats, Turkmenistan will have an opportunity to increase the volumes of energy supplied to Afghanistan as well as supply it beyond the country borders to other states of the region.
The sides further agreed to take efforts for expansion of the trade turnover and seek for new directions of cooperation in this sphere. (AzerNews/Business World Magazine)
