Pakistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenia summit in Islamabad

The summit of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenia to discuss trade and economic relations and the construction of the trans-Afghan gas pipeline opened on Thursday in Islamabad.

Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan arrived in the Pakistani capital on Wednesday. Before that, in the course of two days, the Ministers of Oil, Gas and Natural Resources of the three countries were drafting a treaty on studying the possibility of laying this gas pipeline. The treaty is to be signed by the three heads of state.

According to the television of Pakistan, the heads of state will discuss the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenia to Pakistan via the territory of Afghanistan, as well as the building of motor roads and, possibly, of railways, the development of trade and the expansion of economic cooperation.

The meetings of Presidents Pervez Musharraf and Saparmurat Niyazov and head of the Afghan interim administration Hamid Karzai will also take place in Islamabad. The sides are expected to discuss the political situation in the region with an accent on the remaining tension on the Pakistani-Indian frontier in Kashmir and also the plans for combating terrorism, and Pakistan's and Turkmenistan's contribution to the restoration of the economy and infrastructure of Afghanistan.