Ashgabat, 24 May 2011 (nCa) — President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan will visit Turkmenistan 28-29 May 2011.
His visit is especially important because of fast changing situation in Afghanistan and the region and growing prospects for pursuing peace in the war torn country.
The main topics during summit talks would include fuel and energy complex, TAPI, electricity supply to Afghanistan, transport infrastructure, trade and economy.
It is expected that several bilateral documents related to power engineering, transport, trade, culture and education.
Turkmen-Afghan relations
Turkmenistan and Afghanistan established diplomatic reltions on 21 February 1992.
As of 1 May 2011, 27 documents of interstate, intergovernmental, and interdepartmental nature constituted the foundation for bilateral relations.
In 2009, the mutual trade turnover amounted to US $ 278.93 million. Of this, from Turkmen perspective, exports were US $ 277-24 million and imports US $ 1.069 million.
In 2010, the trade turnover was US $ 367.65 million, composed of Turkmen exports to Afghanistan worth US $ 357-94 million, and imports from Afghanistan amounting to US $ 9.71 million.
For the period Jan-Mar 2011, the trade turnover was US $ 123.81 million – exports US $ 120-61 million and imports US $ 3.2 million.
In the Jan-Mar 2011 assessment, Afghanistan ranked 8th in the list of foreign trade partners of Turkmenistan. The trade turnover appreciated 2.3 times during this period as compared to the same period of 2010.
The main Turkmen exports to Afghanistan are oil and oil products, agriculture products, textiles, light industry and chemical products and other goods.
The main imports from Afghanistan are food items, transport vehicles and spare parts, construction materials, some chemical products and other goods.
As of 1 April 2011, there were 44 enterprises with Afghan assets in Turkmenistan.
There were 39 legal entities of Afghan origin registered in Turkmenistan, including 20 subsidiaries, 10 individual enterprises, 5 business associations, and 4 limited partnerships.
There were 5 Afghan entities without the status of legal person including 3 branches and 2 representations.
As of 1 April 2011, there were 20 joint projects with Afghanistan with total cost of US $ 11.83 million registered in Turkmenistan.
The joint Turkmen-Afghan intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation was created on 5 July 2007. The first session took place 13-14 June 2008 in Ashgabat, the second session was held 29-30 August 2010 in Kabul and the third session will take place in Ashgabat in 2011.
The co-chair of the commission from the Turkmen side is Annamuhammet Gochiev, minister of finance, and the Afghan side is led by Abdul Hadi Argandival, minister for economy.