Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi met in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) and discussed major joint infrastructure projects.
The sides exchanged views on the further promotion of such projects as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) high-voltage power transmission line, and the construction of railways from Turkmenistan in the Afghan direction, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
"At the same time, a high degree of readiness of both sides to continue the construction of these facilities in Afghanistan was noted."
The Afghan Foreign Ministry reports that in addition to the practically starting TAPI project in Afghanistan, the meeting touched on the issues of enhancing the supply electricity from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan's Herat province, revitalising the Lapis Lazuli transport corridor (Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey), enhancing Afghanistan’s railways in the direction of Turgundi-Herat and Andkhoy-Shiberghan-Mazar-e-Sharif through investment.
Muttaqi called for visa facilitation for Afghan businessmen and transport personnel. "Economic-centric policy is the main pillars of our foreign policy, which focuses on regional economic connectivity".
Experts told Daryo that the construction of the TAPI gas 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 developed the raw material source - the supergiant Galkynysh field.
TAPI on Afghan territory, which is more than 800km long, will cover the provinces of Herat, Farah, Nimroz, Helmand and Kandahar.
Eziz Boyarov
Comments (0)