Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Turkey’s support to friendly and brotherly Afghanistan will continue, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated.
Çavuşoğlu met this remark during meeting with the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and foreign minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan.
Çavuşoğlu stated that he discussed efforts for lasting peace in Afghanistan.
Turkey’s top diplomat also exchanged views on the Afghan peace process and regional developments with U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad.
Turkey, whose forces in Afghanistan have always consisted of noncombatant troops, has offered to guard Hamid Karzai International Airport as questions remain on how security will be assured along major transport routes and at the airport, which is the main gateway to the capital Kabul. The security of the airport is crucial for the operation of diplomatic missions out of Afghanistan as Western forces pull out.
The Taliban recently claimed to have taken control of more than 85% of Afghanistan, with government forces surrounding and abandoning outposts.
The Afghan Defense Ministry, however, has rejected the Taliban’s claims, asserting that hundreds of insurgents were killed in retaking the fallen districts.
