China, Turkmenistan talks about situation in Afghanistan

KABUL: (MEP) – The joint Turkmen-Chinese declaration on establishing strategic partnership relations signed in Ashgabat by Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Chinese president Xi Jinping said: “Security and stability in Central Asia is closely linked to the situation in Afghanistan”, state news service “Turkmen dovlet khabarlary” (TDK) reported.

Chinese president was on a state visit in Turkmenistan from September 3 to September 4, 2013.

“The parties support efforts of the international community to restore Afghanistan on the basis of its independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, as well as are willing to actively participate in the process of peaceful revival of Afghanistan together with the international community and spare no efforts to create peaceful, stable, independent, developing Afghanistan, ” the document said.

Turkmenistan has a long border with Afghanistan, where unstable situation remains for a long time. Ashgabat repeatedly expressed the country’s readiness to offer its political space for holding high-level meeting and negotiations on Afghanistan under the auspices of UN.

At the beginning of the year, the Turkmen capital hosted an international working meeting to promote the development of Afghanistan with the participation of neighboring countries, international organizations and potential donors. Official Ashgabat earlier promoted a series of initiatives for socio-economic recovery of the neighboring state, which were positively assessed by UN and OSCE.

In particular, work on construction of Atamyrat-Imamnazar-Akina-Andhoi (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan) railway is carried out. In addition, Ashgabat proposed a project allowing a significant increase in the volume of exports of Turkmen electricity to Afghanistan.

The largest project is construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, the formation of an international consortium for which is currently underway.

Official Ashgabat believes that construction of the gas pipeline, in addition to purely economic issues, will enable the region to solve a number of important social and humanitarian issues, including those related to the creation of new jobs and building infrastructure along the gas main.