PM Mullah Mohammad Has-san Akhund on Wednesday in Kabul met with Ali Mohammad bin Hammad Al Shamsi, the UAE Minister of Federal Au-thority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security and discussed bilateral rela-tions, said Mohammad Naeem, spokesman of the Is-lamic Emirate political office.
Accirding to Naeem, Al Shamsi said the UAE is ready to invest in Helmand and Kandahar dry ports, and a railway and solar power sys-tem in Afghanistan. PM Depu-ties Mullah Abdul Ghani Bara-dar and Abdul Salam Hanafi as well as acting Foreign Min-ister Amir Khan Muttaqi were also present at the meeting, Naeem said.
Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met on Tuesday in Kabul with a delegation led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Federal Au-thority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Ports Security Ali Mohammed bin Hammad Al Shamsi.
The Foreign Ministry said that Muttaqi discussed a range of issues including economic co-operation and bilateral rela-tions with the UAE delegation.
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that during the meeting Muttaqi said the UAE was in a key lo-cation and could serve as a gateway for Afghanistan to in-crease Afghanistan’s trade with the world.
“The UAE is in a key location that could serve as a door for Afghanistan to increase our exports,” Muttaqi said.
Balkhi quoted Al Shamsi as saying that “ties went back and remained strong” and spoke of cooperation and in-vestment in economic, educa-tion, technical and agricultural areas.
This comes as negotiations are ongoing between the Is-lamic Emirate and Qatar, Tur-key and the UAE to run Kabul Airport and four other Afghan airports.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Ça-vuşoğlu said that the United Arab Emirates is interested in participating in the running of Afghanistan’s air-ports, and the companies from the three countries (Turkey, Qatar, UAE) may reach a joint agreement on managing the airports.
