Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov.23
By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:
Turkmenistan will send humanitarian aid to the population of Afghanistan's border regions, "Neutral Turkmenistan" newspaper reported on Nov.23.
According to the report, within this action, goods and products, including sportswear, agricultural products, school desks and confectionery will be sent to the neighboring country for free by the Ministry of Textile Industry, the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, State Food Industry Association and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan.
"The humanitarian aid will be sent in accordance with the Turkmenistan President Gurbanguli Berdimuhamedov's decree signed at the meeting of the country's Cabinet of Ministers," the newspaper said.
According to the newspaper, this decision was adopted "based on the high humanitarian principles of Turkmen people's ancestors, as well as on friendly, brotherly and good neighborhood relations".
Turkmenistan which has a long border with Afghanistan has repeatedly put forward a number of initiatives on socio-economic reconnaissance of the neighboring country that were positively assessed at the level of UN and OSCE.
An international working meeting was held in early 2013 in Ashgabat on contribution to Afghanistan's development with participation of representatives from the closely located countries, international organizations and potential donor countries. In addition, Ashgabat proposed to implement an energy project allowing to increase the export volume of electricity from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan by five times.
The largest of the proposed projects is the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. Currently an international consortium is being formed.
Ashgabat believes that alongside with purely economic problems, the construction of this gas pipeline will allow to solve a number of important social and humanitarian issues, including those related with the creation of additional work places and the formation of infrastructure along the entire gas main.