Deputy Chief of Mission (Minister Counselor) M. Ashraf Haidari joined Mr. Y.K. Sinha, Additional Secretary (PAI Division) of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, and Mr. Rajeev Kher, Additional Secretary (Department of Commerce) of the Indian Ministry of Commerce & Industry to open an 11-day “Specialized Training Program to Facilitate WTO Accession of Afghanistan,” hosted by the Center for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute for Foreign Trade, in New Delhi on February 11, 2013.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Haidari thanked the Center for WTO Studies for conducting the technical training program for 27 central and provincial officials of the government with responsibilities in the areas of finance, trade, and customs. He also extended the gratitude of the Afghan government to the Indian Ministries of External Affairs and Commerce & Industry for their continued support with Afghanistan’s ongoing efforts to achieve accession to and full membership of the World Trade Organization.
Mr. Haidari noted that the benefits of Afghanistan’s accession to WTO are manifold. For the region and its many economic organizations, including SAARC, ECO, CAREC, and others, Afghanistan’s accession to WTO would further pave the way for regional economic integration. This, he pointed out, was also one of the core-long-term foreign policy objectives of Afghanistan. He said that the Afghan government was committed to supporting cohesive regional efforts to unlock and harness the vast natural and human resources of the region through integration.
He encouraged the participants to make the best of the substantively organized training program, and offered them the full support of the Embassy of Afghanistan during their stay in New Delhi.
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