Ambassador of Afghanistan Ashraf Haidari underscored the need for enhancing trade between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and noted that the two parties should not wait for the pandemic to be over in order to focus on trade.

Speaking exclusively to Indeewari Amuwatte at the '@HydePark' program on Ada Derana 24, Haidari expressed the following.

“ The pandemic is there and it is slowly being resolved but we shouldn’t wait for that in order to focus on trade. Both Afghanistan and Sri Lanka cannot afford to just sit and do nothing. So we moved on and signed an agreement between the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment. I was working on a meeting to be arranged between the desk mangers of the two chambers to explore export of Ceylon Tea to Afghanistan. The volume of trade unfortunately is very low between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. We do more trade with Maldives than Sri Lanka. We have so many products such as; tea, textile, apparel, coconut, spices and food and beverage, I think which was import from the rest of the region but, quality wise I think Sri Lankan products are of higher quality. Specially Sri Lankan biscuits that I have had are really good and I have been promoting all of this to be now exported and from Afghanistan, we have dried nuts, fresh fruits."

Speaking further, Haidari stated that discussions were held about having a direct flight between Colombo and Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan.

“At a very good meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa he said that we have to have a flight between Kabul and Colombo and he immediately helped arranging a meeting for me to see the executives of the SriLankan Airlines and they were immediately interested, because as they saw the demand not only in cargo also tourists from Afghanistan."