An expert meeting entitled «Central Asia-Afghanistan» – «The strategic role of analytical centres in developing regional cooperation» – is currently taking place in Kabul. In recent years, the expert community of the region has developed numerous platforms where CA scholars and analytical institutions, together with their Afghan counterparts, discuss issues of cooperation and mutual development.
The need for rapprochement between the countries of the region and such contacts has been brewing for a long time. The CA countries need a stable Afghanistan, they need security, the absence of the export of terrorism, religious extremism and drug trafficking from the neighbouring country. In turn, Afghanistan, being isolated, is largely dependent on its neighbours. Among other things, from a purely economic point of view, Afghanistan is a geopolitical bridge of Eurasia, linking the Middle East, Central and South Asia.
The latest expert dialogue in Kabul is a continuation of the April dialogue between CA countries and Afghanistan, aimed primarily at expanding trade ties, addressing common regional challenges, and attracting resources to stabilise the economy. At the current meeting, analysts will focus on developing transport routes, including through Afghan territory, assessing common threats, coordinating efforts to combat terrorism and drug trafficking, and developing humanitarian cooperation.
It should be reminded that the position of Turkmenistan on the Afghan issue is based on the principles of permanent positive neutrality and good-neighborliness. Ashgabat views a peaceful settlement and long-term stabilisation in Afghanistan through the prism of the inextricable unity of three key components: political, economic, and socio-humanitarian. Projects such as the construction of the transnational TAPI gas pipeline, the installation of high-voltage power lines (TAP), fibre-optic communication lines, the development of railway and logistics infrastructure (modernisation of the Serhedabat-Turgundi hub), the construction and financing of social facilities (schools, hospitals, mosques) are real confirmation of and a contribution to the desire to develop good-neighbourly relations with Kabul. The Turkmen delegation at the expert meeting «Central Asia-Afghanistan» is represented by A. Haljanov, an employee of the country's Foreign Ministry, and S. Shiriyev, director of the Centre for strategic studies of the Institute of international relations of the Ministry of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan.
