Afghan, Turkmen Presidents Inaugurate Railway Line

President Ashraf Ghani and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow on Monday afternoon officially inaugurated the Imamnazar (Turkmenistan) and Aqina (Afghanistan) Railway Line between the two nations.

Together the two presidents cut a ribbon across the new railway line close to the border of the two countries to mark the start of the new transit line.

Speaking after the ribbon-cutting ceremony Ghani thanked Turkmenistan for its support and said with this new railway line gas and fuel will be transported to Afghanistan. As such, the price of fuel and gas will drop, he said.

He also said this was one of Amanullah Khan’s dreams that had come true – the dream of Afghanistan being connected by railway.

Ghani said the next step after Aqena is the connection of Mazar and then Herat.

Ghani said Afghanistan does not have problems with any of its neighbors but that the country wants development not extremism.

In turn, Turkmenistan’s president said the new line had international value and that Afghanistan has an important role in connecting Central Asia to South Asia.

Berdimuhamedow said Afghanistan’s economic development will create new job opportunities and that Afghanistan’s development will result in larger projects being realized.

He said Turkmenistan will continue with joint social and economic projects with Afghanistan and that once the TAPI project is implemented thousands of jobs will be created.

He also said that his country’s plan to increase electricity export to Afghanistan will continue.

In conclusion, Ghani presented Berdimuhamedow with the Ghazi Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan medal of honor.

Delivering a speech earlier in the day in Turkmenabad in Turkmenistan, Ghani said that it was a historic day for the people of Afghanistan.

He noted that Turkmenistan was a good neighbor and that people of Afghanistan consider the development of Turkmenistan as its own development.

Ghani went on to say that a railway connecting Turkmenistan with Afghanistan is a positive step and that “today the railway joins Afghanistan with Turkmenistan, tomorrow with Iran and in the future with India and other countries.”

Ghani has been on an official three-day visit to the neighboring country where he attended the United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference in Ashgabat, which was chaired by the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon.

A number of regional and global leaders also participated in the conference.

The first-ever Global Sustainable Transport Conference wrapped up in the Turkmen capital on Sunday, with more than 50 countries endorsing the ‘Ashgabat Statement on Commitments and Policy Recommendations,’ with a view to supporting cleaner, greener transportation – from local transit systems to worldwide multimodal networks.

“The Conference has reinforced the importance of sustainable transport and has shown it is a shared global task,” said Wu Hongbo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, at the closing ceremony.

“Sustainable transport solutions are key to leaving no one behind, securing prosperity, enabling access to services and protecting the environment,” concluded Wu, noting that “without sustainable transport, there will be no lasting progress on climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

The conference, which opened on Saturday, brought together key stakeholders from governments, the UN system and other international organizations, the private sector, and civil society to engage in a dialogue that emphasizes the integrated and cross-cutting nature of sustainable transport and its multiple roles in supporting the achievement of the SDGs. All modes of transport – road, rail, aviation, ferry and maritime – were addressed.

Source Tolonews

Лекториум он-лайн

[youtube_channel resource=0 cache=0 random=true fetch=25 num=1 ratio=3 responsive=1 width=306 display=thumbnail norel=1 nobrand=1 showtitle=above desclen=0 noanno=1 noinfo=1 link_to=none goto_txt="Visit our YouTube channel"]

You Might Also Like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>