Kabul needs Turkey’s experiences for development: Ghani

President Ashraf Ghani after his two days trip to Azerbaijan has arrived on Wednesday for official visit in Istanbul, where he was expected to hold meetings with the Turkish leadership and sign several agreements on bilateral cooperation.

Ashraf Ghani in the opening ceremony of Afghanistan-Turkey investment summit said that Kabul needs Turkey’s experiences of Afghanistan development and investments; considering Turkey a great model for Afghanistan.

“We have a very young population and we need to use Turkey’s experiences for our developments,” said President Ashraf Ghani.

In the meantime, Turkey’s economic minister has also announced that Ankara is committed to continue support from security, development and capacity building in Afghanistan.

Mustafa Iletash, Turkey’s economic minister noted that Turkey’s traders and its private companies should play an important role like their governments and nation for development of Afghanistan.

“Turkey feels a responsibility against its Afghan brothers to make political and economic stability. We are committed to continue support from security, development and capacity building of Afghanistan,” said Turkey’s economic minister.

During President Ghani’s two day visit to Istanbul, the two parties are expected to sign several memorandums of understandings, including MoU on political consultation between the Foreign Ministries and on security cooperation between the Interior Ministries of the two countries, as well as MoU on the construction of Mawlana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi University by Turkey in Kabul.

Turkey and Afghanistan traditionally maintain close relationship. The trade volume between Turkey and Afghanistan has grown from $8.5 million in 2000 to approximately $300 million in 2013.