Kabul after Regional Cooperation with Tehran: Afghan President

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani voiced his country’s willingness to cement closer regional cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Afghanistan seeks to promote regional cooperation with Iran under bilateral and multilateral agreements, the Afghan president said at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran.

Ghani arrived in Tehran on Monday morning for a ceremony to sign a trilateral agreement between Iran, Afghanistan and India on the establishment of an international transit corridor via the Iranian port city of Chabahar.

Elsewhere in the meeting, the visiting Afghan official stressed that stability, security and progress in Iran contributex to those in Afghanistan.

For his part, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran attaches great significance to Afghanistan’s stability and development, expressing the country’s readiness for all-out cooperation with its eastern neighbor.

He further pointed to the trilateral deal on international transit route, saying the agreement will help development not only in Iran, India and Afghanistan, but also in the entire region.

The Chabahar route will allow Indian goods to reach Afghanistan via the Iranian port of Chabahar without crossing Pakistan’s territory.

Chabahar is located in the Gulf of Oman on the border with Pakistan. It is the closest and best access point of Iran to the Indian Ocean and Iran has devised serious plans to turn it into a transit hub for immediate access to markets in the northern part of the Indian Ocean and Central Asia.