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USI Library News Information Service Tribune, 20-06-2017

Posted at: Jun 20, 2017, 2:23 AM; last updated: Jun 20, 2017, 2:23 AM (IST) First Afghan-India air corridor opens

Workers load a cargo plane at Kabul airport on Monday. AP/PTI Tribune News Service New Delhi, June 19 India and Afghanistan today took their bilateral ties to a new high with the inauguration of the first-ever Afghanistan-India air cargo route. The air route provides an opportunity to both countries to bypass Pakistan that was the main stumbling block when it came to trade between the two via the land route. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the first flight at a ceremony at the Kabul international airport and also thanked PM Narendra Modi for it. The flight departed from Kabul today with a 60-tonne consignment of goods, mostly medicinal plants. Ghani said the aim was make Afghanistan an exporting nation. His adviser Sediqullah Mujadedi said Afghan agricultural products would, for the first time, head to India on cargo planes. The decision to establish an air cargo route between the two countries was taken in December last year when PM Modi met Afghan President Ghani ahead of the Heart of Asia Conference held in Amritsar. Both India and Afghanistan have been victims of cross-border terrorism and both nations have publicly blamed Pakistan for creating trouble in their countries. Relations between Kabul and Islamabad have deteriorated over the past few years with Kabul publicly accusing ISI of being behind many terror attacks to hit the city. India and Pakistan have also been in a highly strained relationship for over a year. Afghanistan is dependent on the Pakistani port city of Karachi for its foreign trade. It is allowed to send a limited amount of goods overland through Pakistan into India, but imports from India are not allowed along that route. The air route will now remove Pakistan from that equation. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/first-afghan-india-air-corridor-opens/424979.html