By Shadi Khan Saif
KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) – Turkmenistan and Afghanistan on Sunday vowed to expedite work on rail links, marble trade and regional energy transit projects on the second and final day of talks headed by the foreign ministers of both countries.
According to the Foreign Ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan's Mohammad Haneef Atmar led a high-level delegation and held talks with his Turkmen counterpart Rashid Mardov, focusing on projects such as the TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India) gas pipeline and the Lapis Lazuli transit route connecting Afghanistan to Turkey and Europe via Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
According to the ministry's statement, the Afghan delegation shared details on the country's estimated $200-billion-worth of various resources and rare stone, which it said would be significant in strengthening and expanding trade with Ashgabat, considering the demand in regional countries, particularly Turkmenistan, for marble.
"Highlighting the construction projects for building new cities in Turkmenistan, the Turkmen delegation discussed their requirement for marble and expressed Turkmenistan's full readiness to procure marble from Afghanistan, it said.
The two sides also discussed the importance of implementing the Torghundi-Herat railway project.
Earlier this year, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov oversaw the inauguration of three major energy and connectivity projects aimed at bolstering bilateral and regional ties.
Ghani had noted on the occasion that it was a source of great pride for Afghanistan to be resuming long-standing relations with Central Asian countries after more than a century of isolation.
"Regional connectivity clusters and large-scale projects such as railway, TAPI gas pipeline, TAP power transmission line, fiber optics network that can link South Asia to Europe by land and to the rest of the world will transform the living conditions of the Afghan people for the better and improve the situation in the entire region," Ghani said.
