Afghanistan and Sri Lanka share much development needs and challenges said Ambassador of Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, H.E. M. Ashraf Haidari.
He was speaking at the 100th anniversary of the independence day of Afghanistan at Taj Samudra last week. Ambassador however said that though there is tremendous bi lateral trade potential between the two countries this is area is highly under underutilized and both countries should get engaged more bilateral trade. There is tremendous untapped potential to be exploited by both countries as there is support of both countries’ leadership for this.”
He also thanked Speaker Karu Jayasuriya for his continued support of the expanding Afghanistan-Sri Lanka relations. “Since 2013, many senior official and technical delegations from Afghanistan have visited Sri Lanka. This includes the state visit of former President Hamid Karzai to Sri Lanka in 2014, while our Governments have signed 8 agreements and MOUs.”
They encompass such issues of bilateral interest as economy, education, science, and technology; labor; air services; sports; higher education; technical capacity building; as well as cooperation between University of Colombo and Kabul University—among others.
“I look forward to initiating bilateral security and defense cooperation, knowing from the shared experiences of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka that most security threats of today transcend borders and are no longer limited to landlocked and littoral states.”
“We are also keen to ink an air services agreement to facilitate a direct passenger and cargo flight between Kabul and Colombo. When this happens as one of my key goals, Afghans and Sri Lankans should be able to reconnect with our shared heritage through tourism, trade and investment, education, and cultural exchange.
Minister Posts, Hashim Abdul Haleem, also said steps are taken to increase trade. There are many openings for Sri Lankans for engineering, education and Health tourism and other trading sectors.”
“ As we celebrate the centenary of Afghan Independence, I want to remind us that the last four decades of the last century since 1919 have hardly been kind to the freedom- and peace-loving people of Afghanistan. There is developing democracy witnessed Afghanistan’s fourth presidential elections last month when close to three million Afghans, including men and women, braved months of terrorist threats and over 200 attacks on the election day to cast their ballot. Afghans not only voted for a president but they also voted for democracy and pluralism.”
“Afghanistan continues to pursue a foreign policy agenda that promotes cooperation against confrontation, win-win policy initiatives against lose-lose militarism and posturing in our immediate neighborhood, the wider region, and the world at large.”
He also said that they were happy to note that Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and economy is recovering fast after the Easter Sunday attacks. (SS)
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