The senior Afghan delegation in talks with Turkmen officials on Saturday in Ashgabat agreed to resume work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project in March, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in its press release on the results of the meeting.
The Afghan delegation led by Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi held a meeting with Deputy Chairman of the Turkmen Cabinet, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and other Turkmen Officials.
The meeting focused on bilateral political, diplomatic and economic relations, security cooperation, early launch of TAPI and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) power transmission line projects, growth in trade and private sector activities, increased exports of marble, fresh and dried fruits, the completion of railway projects in Aqina and Turghandi and investment on wind power.
The sides agreed that the work on electricity transmission, TAPI project and extension of railway would be commenced in March 2022, according to the statement.
The meeting participants also agreed to use Afghanistan as a transit route between Central and South Asia and to transport liquefied natural gas, minerals, food and other commercial goods through this route.
The Turkmen side also pledged to allow dozens of students stuck in Kabul due of COVID -19 to gradually travel to Turkmenistan in early March.
The TAPI pipeline is expected to carry 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas each year along a route stretching 1,800 km from Galkynysh, the world's second-biggest gas field, to the Indian city of Fazilka near the Pakistan border.
The Afghan section of the TAPI pipeline will run from the northwestern border with Turkmenistan, south through the western city of Herat to Kandahar near the border with Pakistan.