Taliban sign deal with Emirates for assistance at Afghan airports
The Taliban interim government on Tuesday signed a deal with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) consortium to provide ground handling services at three airports in Afghanistan, in a bid to increase trade and foreign investment in the country to help it emerge from the economic crisis.
The UAE's GAAC aviation company will provide ground handling services at Kabul International Airport, as well as Kandahar (south) and Herat (west) airports, Taliban government deputy spokesman Inamullah Samangani told Efe.
The signing of the agreement took place in the presence of Afghan Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, Acting Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Hamidullah Akhundzada and GAAC Director General Razaq Aslam, Samangani said
During the signing, Mullah Baradar stressed that security is guaranteed throughout the country and that the Islamic Emirate (as the Taliban's interim government calls itself) is ready to cooperate with countries investing in Afghanistan.
The fundamentalists hope that international flights will soon resume in the country "in a safe and secure environment" allowing "increased trade and business with other countries", Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Twitter.
Following the Taliban takeover on 15 August and the ensuing chaos at the capital's airport, with thousands of people trying to leave Afghanistan on evacuation flights, both Afghan and international airlines suspended flying in the country.
Those evacuation flights ended at the end of August, coinciding with the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan after two decades of war, and since then options for getting in and out of the country have been limited to land borders or the few flights available from Pakistani or Qatari airlines.
Despite the fundamentalists' claims that security in the country has improved since they came to power, few foreign countries and companies have been interested in investing in Afghanistan, mainly because the Taliban government still lacks the recognition of the international community.
When the Taliban came to power, the international community temporarily suspended funds for Afghanistan's reconstruction, which, according to World Bank figures, accounted for around 43 % of its gross domestic product (GDP), thus aggravating the humanitarian and economic crisis in the country.