nCa Report
The minister for commerce and industry of Afghanistan, Noor Uddin Azizi, addressed the joint Turkmen-Afghan business forum in Ashgabat on 4 March 2024.
In his remarks, he assured that the canal the Taliban are building to draw water from the Amudarya River, will not impact the interests of Turkmenistan.
Here are the main points of his speech, condensed and paraphrased for brevity and clarity:
- At the start of his speech he referred to the Quranic verse that asks the mankind to help each other.
- Praising the growing level of bilateral interaction, he thanked Turkmenistan for creating all the conditions for the success of the exhibition and forum taking place in Ashgabat.
- He said that the relations between the people of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are rooted in the ancient history.
- He said that both the countries have jointly implemented a lot of projects.
- He said that the visit of the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov, to Herat in December 2023 was very productive in the bilateral and regional context.
- He said that the people of Afghanistan, by the grace of Allah, were trying their best for the regional development.
- He said that there was unity among the government and the people of Afghanistan.
- He said that the trade and business forum like the present one were leading to tangible results.
- He invited the business community of Turkmenistan to look at the opportunities available in Afghanistan.
- He said that both sides were committed to the implementation of the commitments.
- Speaking of the canal being built to draw water from the Amudarya River, he assured that it will not have any effect on Turkmenistan but on the contrary will strengthen the bilateral cooperation.
- He said that we will do our best to attract the foreign investments.
- He said that we have signed several documents.
- He said that we want our country to be one of the centres of the refinement and development
- He said that our geo-economic potential is for the benefit of all the neighbours.
- He said that the North-South connectivity is a priority for us.
- He said that Afghanistan is a good partner for Central Asia.
- He said that Afghanistan is rich in the hydrocarbon resources.
- He said that we are also a major transit territory.
- He said that we will do everything and we are ready to implement all the measures.
- He said that we will continue the conversation with all of our partners.
- He said that more trade events like this must be held.
- He said that we accord great importance to the socio-economic uplift of our people.
- He said that we have the capacity to do so.
- He said that among our main partners are Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, China and other countries.
- He said that investments are an attractive sector in Afghanistan and we offer favourable conditions to the investors.
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For information about the canal being built by Afghanistan to draw water from the Amudarya River, please see our detailed report:
Afghanistan is building an enormous canal to draw water from Amudarya River. This may affect water availability situation in Central Asia.
The experts interpret the existing documents differently and there is no clear consensus. However, some believe that Afghanistan could be entitled to draw up to 25% of water from the Amudarya River. This would depend on the fresh talks and the unanimously agreed metering system of the water withdrawal. /// nCa, 4 March 2024