On August 27, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov paid an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. An official arrival ceremony of the eminent Turkmen guest took place in the central square of the Presidential Palace Complex in Kabul. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov was given a warm and brotherly welcome by President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani. Then, the Turkmen-Afghan summit talks were held in the Small Hall of the “Del Kusha” Palace in the one-to-one format. In the course of talks, held in the atmosphere of mutual understanding and confidence, the heads of Turkmenistan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan have discussed the implementation progress of the agreements reached earlier, the key trends and prospects for further advancement of the Turkmen-Afghan cooperation that meets interests of the two neighboring countries and peoples. Special consideration was given to the important TAPI gas pipeline and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway joint infrastructure projects, implementation of which is of enormous importance for the entire region’s well-being and prosperity. Welcoming advancement of the Turkmen-Afghan cooperation in the trade-economic field, the two countries’ leaders have also stressed the need to promote the traditional contacts in the humanitarian-cultural sphere. During the meeting, the parties exchanged opinions on a number of topical issues of regional and international policy of mutual interest. President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov invited his Afghan colleague to pay an official visit to Turkmenistan whenever it would be convenient to him. The invitation was gratefully accepted. The timing of the visit will be negotiated through diplomatic channels. Then, the talks in the enlarged format were continued in the Large Hall with participation of the two countries’ official delegations. Once again heartily welcoming President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov on the Afghan land, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has highlighted that Afghanistan appreciates the traditional good neighborly relations with Turkmenistan and successfully cooperates with it in various spheres. During the one-to-one talks, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said, consideration was given to the whole spectrum of issues of interstate partnership that meets the interests of the Turkmen and Afghan peoples bound with the ties of long-standing friendship and affinity of spiritual and cultural traditions. Having confirmed Afghanistan’s unshakeable adherence to the course towards all-round cooperation with our country, the head of neighboring state gave the floor to the Turkmen leader. Concentrating attention on the stable advancement of the interstate dialogue in all its fields – political, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian, the nation’s leader Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov has stressed that today the effective Turkmen-Afghan cooperation is of great importance, in many respects promoting peace, long-term sustainable development and security in the region. In this connection, the Turkmen leader has highlighted the two countries’ intention to render assistance to the UN, other international and regional organizations in this field; in every way possible to facilitate creation of mechanisms aimed at developing the relevant political-diplomatic instrumentalities. In the long run, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan will continue their cooperation, making their contribution to the integrated efforts against international terrorism, extremism, illicit drug turnover, trans-boundary organized crime, and other present-day challenges which are of concern to the entire world community of nations. The nation’s leader has emphasized that our country feels pleasure and pride in the achievements and positive transformations ongoing in the neighboring state. Today, Afghanistan needs wide international support based on the principle of mutual respect, equitable relations and non-interference in the country’s internal affairs. The soonest settlement of situation in Afghanistan is an essential condition of that work’s success. In this regard, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov has once again stressed that Turkmenistan invariably advocates achievement of that objective through exclusively peaceful political means and national reconciliation, believing that the UN should play a key role in that process. In this connection, the leader of nation noted that if necessary, Turkmenistan, as a neutral state, is ready to provide its political space for holding the talks under the auspices of the United Nations aimed at reaching such an agreement Large infrastructure projects, in particular in such priority spheres as energy and transport, are planned for implementation with participation of the Afghan party, the Turkmen leader continued. It serves as a main condition for ensuring political stability in Afghanistan, the country’s economic and social revival, its successful integration into the system of regional and world economic relations. In this context, special importance is attached to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline construction project. Expressing confidence that after solving organizational issues, the “Turkmengas” State Concern will be able to start the work, the head of Turkmenistan has noted that the project is planned to be launched this year. In this connection, the Turkmen leader thanked his Afghan counterpart for support and all-round assistance in the project implementation. Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway is yet another large project assigned to bridge the neighboring countries in the future. We regard the project as a part of our joint efforts aimed at Afghanistan’s restoration, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov said. Turkmenistan is carrying out an impressive body of work in this field in the frames of the Istanbul Process. As is known, our country coordinates the confidence-building measures entitled “Regional Supply Systems”. Speaking of this, the nation’s leader confirmed Turkmenistan’s willingness to undertake a commitment to host in 2017 the 7th regular regional economic conference on Afghanistan. The head of Turkmen state has also highlighted that given the new high-capacity power-producing facilities under construction in Lebap and Mary velayats of our country, Turkmenistan is ready to increase five-fold the supplies of electric power to Afghanistan. Turkmenistan will keep on providing assistance to Afghanistan by building the social- purpose facilities; Afghan specialists will continue to get education in the educational institutions of Turkmenistan. In this context President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov confirmed our country’s readiness to give effective support to Afghanistan in its peaceful revival and socio-economic development. The trade-economic partnership is one of the priority trends of the Turkmen-Afghan relations. In 2014, trade turnover between the two countries reached over one billion US dollars. Thus, Afghanistan takes the 7th place in Turkmenistan’s foreign trade turnover, the Turkmen leader stressed, having expressed confidence in the availability of untapped potential for further growth of the indicator. President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov has also highlighted a significant role of the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghan Commission’s activity in creating new ways and directions for applying the accumulated experience of cooperation, promoting mutually advantageous contacts between the businessmen, regular holding of joint business forums and exhibitions of the two countries’ entrepreneurs. Cooperation between the business circles will be given active support, the head of Turkmenistan emphasized. President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov has placed emphasis on the availability of vast potential for widening the cultural and scientific-educational contacts, exchanging delegations of masters of art and culture, studying the unique historical-cultural heritage of the Turkmen and Afghan peoples. As President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov stressed the parties had once again confirmed the two countries’ invariable adherence to the traditionally friendly, neighborly relations, readiness to closely cooperate in the economic sphere and implementation of the important transport and energy projects. Then, the Afghan leader took the floor again. He has highlighted particular importance of the Turkmen leader’s visit for further development of the bilateral cooperation in all its areas. The head of Afghanistan, in particular, touched upon the prospects for interaction in the carpet-weaving business. As was highlighted in this context, the President of Turkmenistan had charged the “Turkmenhaly” State Association with establishing cooperation with Afghan partners in this sphere. President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani noted that he had enthusiastically welcomed the statement of the head of Turkmenistan that the supplies of Turkmen electric power to Afghanistan would be increased fivefold in the near future. It will be of benefit to all regions of the country, the Afghan leader said. Pending the issue of Turkmen-Afghan cooperation, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has highlighted that the talks on supplying other energy resources to Afghanistan, including gas and oil products, are under way as well. The head of neighboring state has also underlined that the Afghan people look forward to opening the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway. In this context it was stressed that during the talks, Afghanistan had again become convinced in Turkmen partners’ willingness to continue cooperation in the field of railway transport, which is of particular interest to the Afghan party. Not the least significant is the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transport corridor, which is to contribute to the Silk Road revival, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said. Touching upon cooperation in the fuel and energy sector, the Afghan leader placed special emphasis on the importance of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India transnational railway project, having expressed total support for choosing the “Turkmengas” State Concern as the leader of “TAPI Ltd.” consortium. The head of Afghanistan has also confirmed that on the invitation of President of Turkmenistan, the Afghan party would participate in the celebrations in honor of the remarkable date – 20th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s neutrality, to be held in Ashgabat in December this year. As was stressed in this connection, Turkmenistan’s permanently neutral status serves as an important factor of strengthening peace, security and sustainable development on the regional and global level. Afghanistan is developing close cooperation with Turkmenistan, and intends to actively promote and strengthen it in the future, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said summing up the aforesaid. Then in the Press Hall, a ceremony was held of signing bilateral documents aimed to enhance the contractual and legal basis of the Turkmen-Afghan partnership. The documents signed in the presence of the Presidents of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan are: the Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation between the Ministry of Finance of Turkmenistan and the Financial Supervision Department of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the information exchange related to money laundering and financing of terrorism; the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for further developing cooperation in the energy sector; the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for cooperation in the field of sports; the Agreement between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for cooperation in the field of science and technologies; the Agreement between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the Joint Intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghan Commission for Trade-Economic Cooperation. To the applause of the ceremony participants, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov and President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani affixed their signatures to the Joint Communiqué of Turkmenistan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. After the signing ceremony, the heads of two states made a press briefing. At the official lunch the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan gave in honor of the high Turkmen guest the heads of two states exchanged speeches. That same day, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov met with the Chief Executive Officer of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah in the “Sepidar” Palace. In the frames of the visit program, the head of Turkmenistan also had a meeting with representatives of the Turkmen Diaspora in Afghanistan in the “Chak Chinar” Palace of the Presidential Palace Complex. Then President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov proceeded to the Kabul International Airport to leave for the home country.