On December 9, 2017, a delegation of Turkmenistan led by the Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan R. Meredov made a working visit to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
In the first half of the day, the delegation of Turkmenistan was received by the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani. The Turkmen Foreign Minister conveyed warm greetings and respect to the President and people of Afghanistan on behalf of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and reaffirmed the readiness of the Turkmen leadership to bring bilateral ties to a higher level that meets the long-term interests of our countries and peoples.
During the talks, the sides announced the need to deepen partnership in the political, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian spheres. The importance of expanding partnership in the construction and commissioning of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline (TAPI) was noted.
Then a meeting was held with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan S.Rabbani. Greeting the Turkmen delegation, S.Rabbani thanked for the successful holding of the RECCAVII conference, the main achievement of which was the signing of the Agreement on transit and transport cooperation between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Turkey and Turkmenistan. The head of the Turkmen delegation, in turn, stressed that the Turkmen-Afghan political and economic dialogue can be called a model of successful cooperation, which proves the possibility of building beneficial and promising relations with Afghanistan.
In the second half of the day, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan met with the Chief Executive of the IRA Abdullah Abdullah, the Minister of Finance of Afghanistan, co-chairman of the Turkmen-Afghan Intergovernmental Commission from Afghanistan Eklil Khakimi and Minister of Defense Tariksha Bahrami.
In addition, the head of the delegation of Turkmenistan met with the head of UNAMA T. Yamamoto. R. Meredov thanked for the support provided by the UN to Turkmenistan's projects aimed at establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan.
For his part, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Afghanistan, T. Yamamoto, thanked the Government of Turkmenistan for the attention paid to the peace process in Afghanistan, including for providing economic and humanitarian assistance to the people of this country.
