On 3 July the President of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani arrived in Ashgabat for an official visit.
Together with the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, Ghani discussed the TAPI project where the construction works for the Turkmen section of the gas pipeline are underway.
It will be recalled that in May 2017 the Turkmen side stated that the construction of a 214-kilometer Turkmen section of the gas pipeline will be completed by the end of 2018 and the TAPI project will be commissioned in 2019.
The Presidents raised the issue of constructing a railroad from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.As of today the railroad section Atamyrat-Ymamnazar-Akina has been constructed only up to Afghanistan’s border city of Akina.
It was opened in November 2016 and there have been no further reports on resuming construction.
During the visit both sides discussed the construction of the railroad on the territory of Afghanistan.The state information agency TDH reports that the railroad section up to the border with Tajikistan is scheduled to be constructed.
The sides also discussed collaborative efforts in combatting international terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and organized trans-border crime.Let us recall that on 21 June it was claimed that the Afghan district near the Turkmen border had fallen under the control of the Islamic State.
Other topics on the agenda were the supply of Turkmen electric power to Turkmenistan by extending electricity-conducting systems and construction of additional facilities in the Afghan area.
It should be noted that in February 2017 militants of the Taliban movement damaged electric power transmission lines on the territory of northern Afghanistan’s province of Faryab, as a result of which their electricity supply from Turkmenistan was cut off.
Berdymukhammedov invited Ghani to participate in the opening ceremony of the Asian Games. According to TDH, the head of Afghanistan agreed to come to Ashgabat in September.
Later the same day Ghani visited the Akhal-teke equestrian complex located in the foothills of Kopetdag.
In the afternoon the head of Afghanistan laid flowers at the memorial complex “Halk hakydasy”, familiarized himself with the exhibits at the Memorial complex of the museum “Watan mukaddesligi” and made a memorable entry in the distinguished visitors’ book.
In the evening Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov hosted a dinner in honour of his counterpart, after which Ashraf Ghani returned to Afghanistan.