BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 19
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
Turkmenistan and Afghanistan are committed to building up mutual cooperation in the fields of transport, communications and energy, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This was stated during the meeting of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov with the new Consul General of Afghanistan in Mary city Nuriddin Rahmani.
The parties considered the current state and prospects for the development of Turkmen-Afghan relations.
During the meeting, the Turkmen side handed Rahmani a consular exequatur.
The representatives of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning Land Acquisition for the Afghan portion of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
The Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI), also known as Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, is a natural gas pipeline being developed by the Galkynysh – TAPI Pipeline Company Limited with the participation of the Asian Development Bank.
The pipeline will transport natural gas from the Galkynysh Gas Field in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. Construction on the project started in Turkmenistan on 13 December 2015.
The length of the Turkmen section of the TAPI pipeline, the construction of which was launched in December 2015, will be 205 kilometers (the main operations are carried out on the 120th kilometer). The pipeline will pass through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar (816 kilometers), through the cities of Quetta and Multan across Pakistani territory (819 kilometers), and reach the city of Fazilka in India.
The pipeline’s design capacity is planned to be 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and the project’s cost - about $8 billion.
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