Turkmenistan ready to help Afghans achieve peace

Visiting Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said here Thursday that his country was ready to help Afghans achieve lasting peace and stability.

Berdymukhamedov, who heads a high-level delegation, arrived in the Afghan capital earlier Thursday and met with his Afghan counterpart President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani at the country's Presidential Palace.

"As an impartial country, Turkmenistan is committed to helping Afghanistan secure peace and stability," Berdymukhamedov told reporters via a translation toolkit during a joint press briefing with Ghani.

It is important for Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to step up exchanges and cooperation, promote collaboration in trade and economy, energy and security, and increase people-to-people exchanges so as to contribute more to bilateral relations, the Turkmen leader noted.

"Turkmenistan would increase electricity export to Afghanistan by five-fold," he said.

Berdymukhamedov also underscored that his country was ready to help implement the gas pipeline project as well as the railway link to Afghanistan.

Ghani said among the issues discussed was the transfer of electricity from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

The two side also discussed regional security and joint fight against drug smuggling, terrorism and extremism.

Some five agreements in the fields of energy, trade, sports, science and technology were also signed by ministerial level officials witnessed by the two presidents.

The Afghan president also accepted invitation of Berdymukhamedov to attend the Neutrality Day celebration of Turkmenistan to be held later this year.

The total bilateral trade between the two neighboring countries surpassed 1 billion U.S. dollars per year. Endi