KABUL (TCA) — A high-level delegation led by Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov visited Afghanistan this past weekend and held talks with the Afghan president, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported.
President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday met with Uzbekistan’s delegation led by Foreign Minister Kamilov and thanked officials for their cooperation with Afghanistan in a number of spheres.
Kamilov in turn assured Ghani that Uzbekistan would invest in economic projects in Afghanistan, the Afghan president’s office said in a statement.
The delegation included Jamshid Kuchkarov, Uzbekistan’s minister of foreign economic relations, investment and trade; Ismatilla Igrashev, special envoy for Afghanistan; Otabek Akbarov, the head of the department for cooperation with Middle and Near East countries of the ministry of foreign affairs; and Yadgar Shadmanov, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan’s Kamilov said the aim of their trip to Afghanistan was to brief the Afghan president about progress achieved between the two nations, about boosting cooperation and finding ways to further increase ties between the two countries.
Kuchkarov said dozens of Afghans and Uzbeks have invested in both countries and his country is ready to further invest in Afghanistan’s infrastructure including the cement sector, the statement read.
“Efforts are ongoing to create opportunities in Termez for public and private investment and also to address the issue of providing visas to Afghans,” he said.
He also said that “3,000 hectares of land has been put aside [in Uzbekistan] as a free trade zone close to Afghanistan’s border and that a commitment has been made to build a railway line between Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat which will cost about $500 million”.
“We want technical teams from both countries to start work on the railway project and our country will cooperate with Afghanistan over establishing six textile factories in the country and in this regard, we are completely ready,” he added.
Ghani in turn said that Afghanistan has the capacity to boost the transport and trade sector and said he would order government organizations to provide a list of goods that can be exported to Uzbekistan in order to keep a balance in trade between the two countries.
He also asked the visiting delegation to help establish five cement factories in the country and said that 10,000 hectares of land has been earmarked for the Mazar Industrial Park and preliminary work on the project has started.
“Termez (city in Uzbekistan on the Afghan border) is critical and will provide the opportunity for fruit and vegetables to be exported from Afghanistan to Kyrgyzstan and Russia and this city also has cold storage (facilities) to store Afghanistan’s produce,” Ghani said.
Relations between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan have improved considerably in the past year, which was marked by sustained political dialogue and economic engagements.
