BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 28
By Farida Nuri - Trend:
Officials of Turkmenistan will visit the Afghan capital Kabul this week, Trend reports citing Business Turkmenistan Information Center.
The aim of the visit is to discuss the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline.
The pipeline is expected to carry 33 billion cubic meters 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 Pakistani border.
The Afghan stretch of the pipeline will run from the northwestern border with Turkmenistan, south through the western city of Herat to Kandahar near the border with Pakistan.
Mohammad Issa Akhund, Acting Minister of Mines and Oil in the new government of Afghanistan, met with the Ambassador of Turkmenistan in Kabul Hoja Ovezov ahead of the two-day visit of the Turkmen delegation to Afghanistan, which will begin on Oct. 30.
Afghanistan expects to receive 5 percent of the gas, as well as earn hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees.