THE BEGINNING OF IMPORTANT CHANGES

The official visit by the president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, to Azerbaijan was a milestone in the development of bilateral relations. Baku and Kabul confirmed that they are strategic partners and ready to expand cooperation, which, meanwhile, will be important for integration processes throughout Eurasia.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting with his Af-ghan counterpart that "our countries are friendly. This friendship is based on the history and current common interests of our countries".

Indeed, taking into account the historical experience of bilateral relations, the current level of Azerbaijani-Afghan cooperation meets Baku and Kabul's strategic interests amid difficult political and economic processes that are taking place in Eurasia.

Azerbaijani-Afghan dialogue is presently based primarily on security cooperation, which started in the early 2000s, when this country joined the international anti-terror coalition. The target of that coalition was the extremist group Taliban which had seized power in Afghanistan and also threatened the interests of neighbouring countries and the entire region. As a result of the military campaign of the international coalition, Afgha-nistan saw political changes that expressed themselves, in particular, in last year's democratic presidential election, which resulted in Moham-mad Ashraf Ghani replacing former President Hamid Karzai. Ghani's visit to Azerbaijan showed that bilateral cooperation in the field of security and fight against terrorism continues to remain relevant.

Azerbaijan continues to contribute to the stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan by participating in the NATO-led mission International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Incidentally, at a recent discussion at NATO's headquarters of a document on the assessment of Azerbaijan's Individual Partnership Action Plan, NATO member states once again acknowledged this country as a loyal and reliable partner and highly praised its role in the implementation of the "strong support" mission in Afghanistan. Brussels especially highlighted the delivery of trainings by Azerbaijan to representatives of the Afghan government and military.

During his visit to Baku Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani expressed deep gratitude to Azer-baijan for its sustainable participation in the NATO-led "strong support" mission. "We are expanding our horizons in the field of stability and anti-terror cooperation," the Afghan leader said. "I believe that we will achieve not short-term but medium- and long-term goals."

Meanwhile, the future goals of Azerbaijani-Afghan cooperation can also be seen in the economic cooperation between the parties. At an event attended by Azerbaijani business people, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said his government is ready to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan in all fields. In this regard, he said that there were good opportunities for Afghan companies to implement joint projects with Azerbaijani businesses.

Baku is also interested in expanding economic cooperation with Ka-bul. Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry Niyazi Safarov expressed hope that "the wonderful relations between the presidents of our countries create conditions for a further development of Azerbaijani-Afghan economic relations". He said that both state-owned and privately-owned companies of Azerbaijan are ready to invest in Afghanistan and "strengthen the economic component of cooperation".

Meanwhile, experts believe that the "economic component of cooperation" between Baku and Kabul is of importance for multilateral cooperation throughout Eurasia, including the Caucasus-Caspian and Central Asia regions. For example, Turkish analyst Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu believes that the visit by the Afghan president to Azerbaijan will mark the beginning of important changes in the region. He believes that one manifestation of this is the establishment by Afgha-nistan of energy cooperation with the West on the basis of transport projects via Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan and Afghanistan occupy a strategically importance place on the Great Silk Road which is reviving in modern conditions. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev especially emphasized that "we are completing the missing part of the Silk Road - railway communication among Azerbaijan, Geor-gia and Turkey. I hope that next year we will celebrate the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway".

In other words, additional integration opportunities will open up for Afghanistan, which has repeatedly expressed interest in the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. This Central Asian country, which has been engulfed in endless wars for decades, needs those additional integration opportunities a lot to overcome the crisis which has lasted for many years.

The Azerbaijani president also stressed that "we have already received first container trains from China to Azerbaijan and for transit through Azerbaijan". In this regard, it is necessary to recall the outcome of a recent visit by Ilham Aliyev to China, during which an intergovernmental memorandum "on the joint promotion of the establishment of 'the Silk Road economic zone'" and an agreement on cooperation in the field of railway transport were adopted. This confirmed Azerbaijan's serious positions in a "logistics and international transport system" which is taking shape in the heart of Eurasia and aims to create a communication link between China and Europe. As the main driver of the Great Silk Road project, Beijing has acknowledged that Azerbaijan is a key Eurasian player that has both favourable geographical conditions and sufficient infrastructure capacities to ensure the delivery of Chinese products to Turkey and on to Europe. So, we can say that Azerbaijan is implementing its potential as an important hub in the formation of the East-West transport corridor and will provide Europe and Asia with the shortest path to deliver goods from China to Europe. In this sense, Afghanistan could also play an important transit role that would meet Azerbaijan's interests, among other things.

Speaking about the nature of and prospects for Azerbaijani-Afghan cooperation, we cannot but point out Kabul's support for our country's territorial integrity. This support was reaffirmed during Mohammad Ashraf Ghani's visit to Baku. "You supported us during the vote at the UN General Assembly. You supported us when Azerbaijan was a candidate for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. We are very grateful for this," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said. He also recalled that "at the same time, we also support all of Afghanistan's initiatives, within all international organizations".