Turkmenistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov briefed President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov on his visit to Afghanistan.
In Kabul the Turkmen delegation was hosted by President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani.The information agency Trend reports that the sides discussed the issues related to ensuring the security of the pipeline Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India as well as the security of construction projects to build power lines and railroads.
The information website “Gundogar” reports about the increasing instances of attacks between militants of the Taliban movement or ISIS and local rebels from the Afghan provinces Herat, Badghis, Faryab, Jowzjan and Balkh, which are located along the border with Turkmenistan.
“A tough situation is being observed in the provinces of Farah, Helmand and Kandahar. The TAPI (Turkmenistan — Afghanistan — Pakistan — India) gas pipeline is scheduled to go through these provinces (as well as Herat province) with the construction being launched in Turkmenistan”,— the media outlet reports.
On May 5, in the course of the session of the Turkmen government Deputy Prime Minister Maksat Babaev reported that the Turkmen section of the gas pipeline is being built according to the schedule. The construction of the gas pipeline on the territory of other countries has not been launched yet.
According to the information provided by the state information agency TDH, the Turkmen side has concluded a contract with the German “ILF Beratende Ingenieure GmbH” to render preliminary project design services on the territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the plan, the gas pipeline is scheduled to be commissioned in 2019.However, the Indian media outlets reported that the TAPI opening was postponed for a year as the Turkmen side failed to find investors within the scheduled dates.