On August 19 the people of Afghanistan celebrate the main national holiday – Independence Day. Shortly before the remarkable day the leaders of the two countries had a telephone conversation. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov cordially congratulated Hamid Karzai on the holiday and informed that on the remarkable occasion the Government of Turkmenistan had taken the decision to render the humanitarian aid – textile goods, food product and school supplies and stationery to Afghanistan.

This humane action is another sign of goodwill, friendship, fraternity and good neighbourliness shown by the Turkmen state to Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, this Turkmenistan’s step will contribute to development of the Turkmen-Afghan relations which were offered a powerful incentive during President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s state visit to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan this April.

The history of the centuries-old friendly, fraternal bilateral relations has continued during the years of independence of Turkmenistan. The Turkmen say “peace at my neighbour – calmness in my house. This popular wisdom underlies our intergovernmental relations. After gaining independence Turkmenistan established the diplomatic relations with Afghanistan. The Turkmen people were among the first to lend a helping hand to the Afghan brothers – a vivid evidence of establishing the direct trade and economic ties was opening our consulates in the towns of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.

Through Turkmenistan’s endeavours a number of the international forums on Afghanistan, several rounds of the talks between the conflicting military and political parties of this country were organized in Ashgabat in the second half of the 1990s. Employing its status of neutrality Turkmenistan attempted to orient the confronting parties towards achieving peace and concord in Afghanistan.

In September 2000 Turkmenistan put forward a new peacemaking initiative – to continue the inter-Afghan dialogue that was supported and welcomed by the Afghan leadership as well as the leaders of the confronting parties, who viewed it as the realistic opportunities of settling the Afghan conflict. The initiative was supported by neighbouring Iran and Pakistan as well as endorsed at the United Nations headquarters. The diplomatic circles of this forum welcomed Turkmenistan’s endeavours to achieve the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan.

In 2001 Turkmenistan supported the establishment of the international antiterrorist coalition to ensure peace and concord in Afghanistan. On the basis of the status of neutrality Turkmenistan immediately expressed the willingness to provide the surface and air corridors for delivering the humanitarian aid to the fraternal people that demonstrated once more the humanness of our foreign policy.

In the epoch of new Revival the Turkmen-Afghan relations have been brought to a higher level through the efforts and political will of both leaders – Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Hamid Karzai. The official visit of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Turkmenistan in July of 2007 was of paramount significance for developing the bilateral relations. The state visit of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Afghanistan this April brought the bilateral Turkmen-Afghan relations to a new level. During the top level talks held in the atmosphere of mutual understanding and confidence the leaders exchanged views on the prospects of maintaining the bilateral relations and the issues of mutual interest. The both leaders noted that enhancing the Turkmen-Afghan relations was of vital interest to both nations and reaffirmed the willingness to deepen the political dialogue, to comprehensively expand and intensify mutually advantageous and equal trade and economic co-operation. The visits resulted in signing the bilateral documents that replenished the legal base of the relations between the two neighbouring countries. The dialogue between Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Hamid Karzai on the days of opening the XXIX Summer Olympic Games continued the modern history of our countries including co-operation in the humanitarian and economic spheres.

In 1995-2002 the Turkmen specialists constructed and put into operation the power transmission lines in Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif. In March 2002 the countries signed the intergovernmental agreement on energy co-operation and the energy ministries of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan signed the relevant documents regulating the procedures and principles of co-operation.

At present Turkmenistan export up to 70 MWt of electric power to Afghanistan and is planning to increase electric power export to Herat up to 100 MWt and to Mazar-i-Sharif up to 300 MWt. To achieve these goals the power transmission line and substation with the capacity of 500 KWt will be built.

This is another evidence of Turkmenistan’s good intentions towards Afghanistan that are supported with the Turkmen partners’ concrete steps. In January 2003 our country exported the considerable volume of liquefied gas at a reduced price to meet the needs of the Afghan people.

In early 2007 the President of Turkmenistan issued the Resolution “On Writing Down of the Debt of the Ministry of Energy and Water Industry of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”. The debt amounted to US$ 4 million. Serhetabat-Turghundi railway branch was reconstructed at Turkmenistan’s expense last year in accordance with the decision of the President of Turkmenistan. The project amounted to US$ 550,000. The Turkmen leader took the decision to export electric power to Afghanistan on the gratuitous basis to the total sum of US$ 300,000.

Humanitarian co-operation is intensified – in accordance with the Order of the President of Turkmenistan of February 5, 2008 Turkmenistan rendered the humanitarian aid to Afghanistan; the delegation of the Turkmen cultural workers and artists and the Humanitarian Association of the World Turkmen visited Afghanistan on March 10-15, 2007.

With the assistance of the Humanitarian Association of the World Turkmen the Turkmen diaspora in Afghanistan and the Afghan scientists and cultural workers take active part in the social and cultural life of our country, and the Government of Turkmenistan takes the specific steps to provide the Turkmen schools in Afghanistan with school supplies and textbooks in the native language. The young people from Afghanistan study the higher and specialized high schools in Turkmenistan. Under the Agreement on Co-operation in rendering medical aid to the people residing in the boundary regions 30 places are allocated at the multifield hospital in the Lebap and Dashoguz Velayats of Turkmenistan

Our countries’ endeavours aimed at developing the relations reflected in the Agreement on establishment of the intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghan commission for trade and economic co-operation, which first met in Ashgabat on July 11-14, 2008. This document was signed by the leaders of the two countries during President Hamid Karzai’s official visit to Turkmenistan in July 2007. The work of the commission will facilitate trade and economic, social and cultural co-operation between the two countries.

The intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghan relations overstepped the bounds of bilateral co-operation long time ago. From the first days of independence Turkmenistan promotes the idea of the multivariant gas pipeline network to export Turkmen natural gas to the world markets. In the epoch of new Revival a priority of the national policy is to diversify hydrocarbon export. In this regard the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline Project is of significant importance. The total length of the gas pipeline is 1,680 km, of them 145 km – in the territory of Turkmenistan, 735 km – in Afghanistan and 800 km – in Pakistan. Then the pipeline will stretch to India which joined the TAPI Project in 2006.

The participating countries will equally benefit from the TAPI Project. For Turkmenistan the Project will be an alternative route of exporting energy resources to the world markets and an opportunity to make a considerable profit from selling natural gas. Afghanistan will receive natural gas as an energy source and make a considerable profit from transit of Turkmen natural gas. The engineering and technical facilities will be built along the route of the gas pipeline – that is thousands of new jobs.

Turkmenistan takes the constructive steps to maintain friendship and co-operation with the neighbours in the region as well as the countries worldwide. The Turkmen-Afghan relations meeting the vital interests of the two fraternal peoples vividly evidence the high demand for this policy.