Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will operate Kabul’s international airport trilaterally.
Talking at a press conference on Monday, the Turkish foreign minister said that Turkey and Qatar have not yet reached an agreement with the Islamic Emirate.
Referring to Ankara and Doha’s efforts to operate the airport, he said: “We made an agreement with Qatar, our friends in Doha continued to discuss what can be done if the joint company (of Qatar and Turkey) takes on the operation of the airport,” said Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that UAE has shown readiness to be involved in operating the airport. “They (UAE) said we may operate the airport trilaterally.”
Meanwhile, officials at the Ministry of Transport and Aviation said negotiations continue with the companies representing these three countries, but an agreement was not formalized yet.
“We are talking with each of them separately and telling them our conditions; then we will select one,” said Imamuddin Ahmadi, spokesman of Transport and Aviation.
The government spokesmen said that meetings were held with the representatives of the three countries. “Discussion continued over the airport, and the government has not reached an agreement,” said Bilal Karimi.
In the meantime, officials at the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment and along with economy experts believe that the operation of Kabul’s airport trilaterally will benefit Afghanistan and it will improve commerce and investment sectors.
“Three countries are beneficial for Afghanistan–Turkey and Qatar are good from a politics viewpoint, Turkey is a member of NATO, it has good relations with Russia and is an Islamic country,” said Sayed Massod.
“We are happy about this opportunity and it is a good chance that we can have more flights from the airport,” said Mohammad Younes Momand.
Before the Islamic Emirate took power in Afghanistan, Turkey was leading the military wing of the airport under NATO, and a UAE company was running the civilian part of the airport.