Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki expressed that Afghanistan is ready to work with full enthusiasm as to commence practical work on energy projects from Turkmenistan.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry said the projects in question are the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) power transmission line.
This was said during a meeting with the new Consul General of Turkmenistan in Herat, Batyr Yelov, who presented his credentials.
The ceremony was attended by Turkmenistan's Ambassador Khoja Ovezov, who said that " his country was working on many options (of TAPI) which would eventually be shared with the Afghan side once finalized".
The construction of the pipeline with a capacity of 33bn cubic metres of gas per year began in December 2015. During this period, the Turkmen side brought the linear pipeline to the Afghan border and prepared the raw material source.
TAPI on Afghan territory, which is more than 800km long, is to cover Herat, Farah, Nimroz, Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
Experts told Daryo that the project is stuck after the change of power in Kabul in August 2021. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which lobbied for the project, has closed its office in Afghanistan pending international recognition of the Islamic Emirate.
Security is also an issue because of threats from the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State. Afghan field commanders promise to form 30,000 fighters to protect the TAPI infrastructure.
The Islamic Emirate recently is ready to pay the cost of the TAPI project which is related to Afghanistan. Homayun Afghan, a spokesman for the country's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, said.
"Turkmenistan contributes to the support, as does Afghanistan and other nations like Pakistan and India. God willing, we are prepared to begin work whenever it begins, and if no alternative can be found, we are prepared to support ourselves."
Eziz Boyarov
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