Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Oct. 25 /Trend, H.Hasanov/
Turkmenistan diligently takes care about Afghanistan's accession to the international economic relations, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said, speaking at the forum of the Humanitarian Association of World Turkmen in Ashgabat. All media outlets of the country referred to this speech of the President on Tuesday.
"Given the new conditions and purposes of modern human development, Turkmenistan diligently takes care about Afghanistan's accession to the international economic relations," said President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, mentioning the importance of implementing large-scale project - Turkmenistan - Afghanistan - Pakistan - India (TAPI ) gas pipeline, which is designed to have a positive impact on economic development in the region, peace, Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported.
Berdimuhamedov said that "achieving peace in Afghanistan, which is the closest neighbor, is one of the most urgent problems of today and the determining factor for the security and sustainable development of not only Central Asia, but also the whole world.
The basic document for the TAPI project is the intergovernmental agreement on the project realization, which was signed in Ashgabat on December 2010.
The TAPI with 17,000 kilometers in length and a design capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year has an estimated cost of about $7-8 billion.
Experts say that a major obstacle to implementing the TAPI gas pipeline is the continued escalation of tension in Afghanistan. Ashgabat proposed UN-backed inter-Afghan peace talks.
Ashgabat has declared its readiness to provide country's political space for the UN-backed international meeting of high-level and intra-Afghan talks on the situation in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, Turkmen media also reported that at the initiative of the Turkmen side, large part of Afghanistan's territory is provided with electricity at an acceptable price, the Afghan people is regularly provided with humanitarian assistance, over 330 kilometers of electroconductive systems were laid in northern and south-western provinces of Afghanistan, railway line was upgraded from Turkmen border up to the Afghan settlement of Turgundi, the universities of Turkmenistan train Afghan specialists for various sectors of economy.
The report of the national TV channel "Altin Asir" noted " positiveness of proposals for Afghanistan made by Turkmenistan at the UN General Assembly session."
In particular, the proposals deal with construction of a railway from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan with the participation of international organizations, increasing amounts of electricity supplied from Turkmenistan, which, in turn, envisages creating transport, energy systems, development of the sectors of education, health, and construction of other social facilities in the country.