In the past week, a foundation laying ceremony of a maternity hospital took place in the settlement of Turgundy, Herat province of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. On behalf of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, the ceremony was attended by the Turkmen delegation. According to the Order of the leader of nation, the maternity hospital will be constructed in the frames of the humanitarian assistance program for the brotherly Afghan people aimed at facilitating advancement of the Afghanistan’s health system. Over all recent years, our country has been participating in peaceful restoration of Afghanistan, facilitating in practice its socio-economic development. As a closest neighbor, Turkmenistan within the frames of the agreements in force carries out a number of projects, including supply of power energy and liquefied gas to the Afghan people on easy terms. In recent years, in the frames of the concluded bilateral contracts, our specialists have constructed a number of power-supply facilities, including the substations and power transmission lines, whose network will further be expanded. Turkmenistan also provides free assistance to the Afghan people in the sphere of education and health care. On the initiative of the head of state Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, the Turkmen side funded construction of a Health House and a school in Afghanistan. Besides, on the basis of interstate agreements, tens of Afghan students study in different higher education establishments of Turkmenistan to get professional education on various specialties. To provide humanitarian aid to the brotherly country on the systemic basis, a program has been developed which includes a number of the appropriate measures: construction of social projects, opening of a shopping centre, delivery of humanitarian goods, etc. As the participants of the present ceremonious event noted, all positive initiatives of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, his policy of peace and openness serve for strengthening of friendly relations between the two neighboring countries, whose peoples are connected with age-old ties of brotherhood and spiritual kinship. As the people assembled stated, another act of good has become one more eloquent example of inviolability of traditions of friendship and neighborhood.