AA: Illegal poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has surged by 10 percent, the country’s Counter-Narcotics Ministry said Saturday. Ministry spokesman Mohammad Hanif told reporters in Kabul that besides the traditional areas of poppy cultivation in the country’s south and southwest, the northern province of Badghes has fueled much of this year’s surge in illegal poppy cultivation. Click
Ayaz Gul VOA News March 15, 2017 ISLAMABAD — A meeting Britain is hosting Wednesday is expected to resolve the tense border dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials told VOA hours before the talks. Pakistan closed its border with landlocked Afghanistan to all traffic nearly a month ago, after a string of terrorist attacks killed scores
Ayaz Gul VOA News March 13, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Business representatives from Pakistan and Afghanistan have called on Islamabad to immediately reopen the border between the two countries, saying the closure is hurting economic and social ties and resulting in massive monetary losses and mutual trust deficit. Pakistani authorities unilaterally closed the two main border crossings
Politico: When Donald Trump said in late January that America should have “kept the oil” after invading Iraq — “To the victor go the spoils,” he declared — foreign governments were horrified. But one country is now actively promoting its natural resources to win Trump’s attention for its desperate cause: Afghanistan. The government, led by President
Press TV March 10, 2017 India says it expects to complete the first phase of the construction of Iran’s southeastern port of Chabahar in 2018. “We can complete the work on the first phase of the project in 2018… The funds are likely to be released shortly. Tenders are out for the project,” India’s Shipping,
The Washington Fee Beacon: Afghanistan is ramping up investment in economic development as part of an effort to stabilize the country’s security environment while moving away from reliance on foreign aid, the chief adviser to Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said Friday. “There’s not any country that has moved from poverty to prosperity through foreign aid.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 2, 2017 A regional economic summit in Pakistan has concluded with 10 nations pledging to collectively fight the “challenge of terrorism” and push for greater collaboration on trade, energy, and infrastructure. Islamabad hosted the daylong Economic Cooperation Organization summit on March 1. “There has never been a more opportune time
Ayaz Gul VOA News March 1, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Landlocked Afghanistan has used a regional summit to call on Pakistan to reopen formal border crossings between the two countries, saying barriers on trade, transit and the movement of people defy stated objectives of promoting economic cooperation among participating nations. Islamabad, which hosted Wednesday’s summit of the
VOA News February 28, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has put in place extremely tight security measures in and around its capital, Islamabad, ahead of Wednesday’s regional economic cooperation summit, where presidents of Iran and Turkey will also be in attendance. The high-profile meeting of the 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization, or ECO, has been convened at a
The Wall Street Journal: A new railway between China and Afghanistan, part of Beijing’s Silk Road initiative to promote regional trade, has run into roadblocks in Uzbekistan, apparently over fears that it could also benefit terrorists. Click here to read more (external link). Related China Again Dismisses Reports of Military Patrols in Afghanistan