Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Kabul-Tehran to Sign Strategic Agreement in Coming Weeks










President Ashraf Ghani's National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar, while meeting with officials in Iran on Wednesday, announced that the national unity government would be helping start a new chapter in Kabul-Tehran relations, including an expansion of bilateral cooperation in addressing shared issues like drug trafficking and violent extremism.
"Following the formation of national unity government, we took initiatives to open a new chapter of relations with Iran and expand our ties as a strategic partnership and on a broader level," Atmar said on Wednesday.

He said that the draft of a strategic agreement has been prepared and the two countries will sign it within a few weeks. "The draft of a strategic cooperation partnership has been prepared," Atmar said. "Naturally, we need some more time, but we are optimistic we will finalize the agreement in the coming weeks through the work of teams of experts from the two countries."

In his meetings with Iranian officials, Atmar was said to have discussed a number of important issues, including the war on terrorism and extremism in the region and solutions for the problems facing Afghan migrants and refugees in Iran.

According to Atmar, regional countries have begun to realize that instability in Afghanistan is not in the interests of any nation in the region and Iran is committed to playing a role in the Afghan peace process.

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