Friday July 3, 2020
Kabul (BNA) Presidents Ashraf Ghani virtually discussed a set of issues pertaining to regional connectivity, trade and transportation as well as peace and regional response to covid-19 with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan, yesterday morning.
According to BNA report, having welcomed his two counterparts, President Ghani expressed gratitude to them for their multifaceted cooperation with Afghanistan, particularly on revival and operationalization of the Lapis Lazuli Corridor, calling it a transformative program.
President Ghani expressed gratitude to President of Turkmenistan for extending railway to two dry ports of Aqeena and Torghundi, establishing two corona testing laboratories, and his quick decisions to ensure flow of goods through remain uninterrupted.
The president also praised President Aliyev for hosting the Online Non-Aligned Movement Summit in response to Covid-19, adding that it was important to support the stance of the movement vis-à-vis covid-19.
President Ashraf Ghani welcomed President Aliyev’s suggestions on formation of a joint task force at the level of transport and other relevant ministries from the three countries for further improvement of regional connectivity, railway, and fiber optics.
President Ghani suggested if the joint group reports to the three Presidents every quarter to draw attention of the leadership to ensure addressing the issues quickly and to ensure that work at the level of bureaucracies does not stop this initiative.
The president said Afghanistan is ready to extend joint cooperation with public and private sectors of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan and invited Azeri and Turkmen firms to join ventures with Afghanistan, particularly in the areas of marble and agriculture, referring to the government’s program to bring 1.4 million hectares of land under cultivation.
President Ghani asked his Azeri and Turkmen counterparts to simplify customs processes for Afghan traders. He termed availability railway significant in trade and transit and said there is a need to build around 4 to 6 thousand of kilometers railways to really integrate the region.
The president said that public and private sector of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan could make investment on mine exploration in Afghanistan, suggesting that their ministers work with the Afghan side in investment portfolio.
The president said the government is creating standard dry ports in eight points in Afghanistan, adding that the US Development Finance Cooperation, European Union and ADB are willing to offer guarantees.
He added, “We have also developed very important trade and energy. In addition to TAPI, our goal is to create an energy corridor from Azerbaijan to Afghanistan and potentially expand it to Pakistan and India.”
“Linking Azerbaijan to this fiber optic corridor will change the face of interactions between South Asia and Central Asia connecting us with Europe and including china so it is very important adjustment to be take,” said the President.
The president said the government is committed to peace and has made sincere efforts to bring sustainable peace to the country, underlining that the Afghan Foreign Ministry is going to have a meeting with 18 neighbor countries, near and far, as part of a regional approach to receive support of the countries in the region.
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan expressed his gratitude over holding the trilateral virtual meeting, terming it beneficent for discussing cooperation and its future development.
He added that Azerbaijan has participated in NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan since 2002 and contributed to peace and stability in Afghanistan by providing troops, multi-model transit, trading and financial assistance.
President of Azerbaijan said with the Lapis Lazuli Route connected to Baku, the shipment of cargo from Afghanistan to Azerbaijan via Turkmenistan and onward in western direction has become possible. He added that the coronavirus disease being the most acute problem of present spread all over the world and entail tragic consequences, and stressed that solidarity and cooperation between the countries on the bilateral level, and the international organizations are important during the pandemic.
Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan has taken additional measures to ensure transportation of goods, international shipping through the east-west transportation corridor has remain uninterrupted.
The Azeri President suggested convening of a working level meeting between the transportation bodies over countries to evaluate the outcome of this particular meeting and our future steps.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan considered the meeting a great opportunity to exchange views on strategically important aspects of cooperation, particularly partnership in transportation and communication areas.
He underscored that the three countries had active cooperation in international efforts in countering the corona disease.
President Berdimuhamedov said upon spread of the virus, the three countries tried to create condition for continuation of transit and transport activities across the border amidst the spread of the pandemic, expressing gratitude to Afghanistan and Azerbaijan for supporting Turkmenistan’s initiative to deal with the corona virus and mitigate the social-economic consequences.
The Turkmen President said, “We have created new mechanisms corresponding to the current situation which have enabled us and our neighbors to ensure the safe movement of vehicles and freights among countries and the region. We have also taken measures to control disease spread along borders.”
He said Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are united by common history, culture and tradition and continue to solidify their relations, calling peace, security and mutual understanding valuable between the three states and their peoples.
President of Turkmenistan stressed on implementation of a common tariff policy, creation of an integrated logistics center, availability of modern high-tech transport infrastructure, simplification of customs processes, and necessity to prepare the digital address of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan route as an effort to ensure efficiency of freight transportation.
President Ghani once again expressed gratitude to his counterparts for attending the online trilateral summit and said our common economic future are tied together and its requires comprehensive cooperation.
The president welcomed their suggestions including formation of a joint task forces, creation of common tariff policy, streamlining customs processes, establishment of joining logistics center, availability of high-tech transport infrastructure and other suggestions and described them as advantageous factors for improvement of regional connectivity, trade, transit and efficiency of freight transportation.
President Ghani said, “Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are emerging as regional hubs.” He added that Baku and Tukmenbashi and facilities around the Caspian have become the port of choice for Afghanistan.
The president said “Railroad has proven its value during the time of corona, because while transport by trucks is important but rail has been our lifeline.”
President Ghani stressed alignment in terms of customs processes between the three countries and said Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan’s leadership in terms of this and exchange of information thought a secured system is crucial to enable us move forward.
“The two ports of Aqeena and Torghundi are ready and we are ready to move forward through joint cooperation with both public and private sectors of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan,” added the president. And also public sector.
The president at the end proposed organizing online meeting of the heads of transport and agencies in our countries in July this year in order to work in detail on formation of the joint task force.
