News
H.E. Minister Daoud Ali Najafi attended an Aviation “Tiger Team” meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss the normalisation of the aviation sector
As an outcome of a high-level meeting of Afghanistan Partners, chaired by the President of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which took place in Montreal, Canada, last September 2011, an Aviation “Tiger Team” led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was established with the aim to updating a Road Map for the normalisation and the transition of the Afghan aviation sector.
After a first meeting in Brussels, a second Tiger Team workshop was hosted by Turkish Military Authorities in Istanbul to agree on the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Roadmap, an Aviation Action Plan, and the Terms of Reference for a dedicated aviation coordinating group which will be the Minister’s main tool to ensure a coherent and co-ordinated approach of the International Community (IC) in assisting the Afghan Authorities in the rehabilitation of the aviation sector and the transition of aviation responsibilities from the military in Afghanistan.
Mr. Suat Hayri Aka, Deputy Under Secretary, Minister of Transport of Turkey conveyed his honor to H.E. Minister Daoud Ali Najafi to have Turkey host this Tiger Team meeting, and to support all the international efforts towards the normalisation of aviation activities in building a sustainable aviation system in Afghanistan. He recalled Turkey’s support in the training of Afghan airworthiness technicians and engineers, as well as the continuous care and interest for technical and operational maintenance improvements of Ariana Airlines.
H.E. Minister Daoud Ali Najafi provided a report on progress within Afghanistan, to include information on the new Civil Aviation Law, and highlighted his long-term objective to make civil aviation sector self-reliant by building sufficient human resource capacity and the necessary infrastructure. The Minister highlighted that Afghanistan will always work in close cooperation with regional and international partners to further strengthen Aviation linkage in achieving regional prosperity, and that Afghan people, stand ready to play their part.
The meeting was chaired by Major General Istvan Talla, NATO Director of Airspace Capabilities from the Defense Investment Division, and included representatives participation from the Afghan Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (MoTCA), major donor nations, including Germany, Japan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States; European Commission; NATO and US military authorities; and members of NATO Headquarters International Staff.
The participants identified the key objectives of the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Roadmap (ACAR) which were:
- Building Institutional Capacity (Governance);
- Building Civil Aviation Regulatory Capacity and Aviation Revenue Structure;
- Enhancing Infrastructure, transitioning Air Navigation Services, and Building Aviation Training Capacity;
- Safety and Security Oversight.
After providing inputs and reaching a consensus on the ACAR, the stakeholders agreed on the need to review a Roadmap related Afghanistan Aviation Action Plan (AAP) as the single and coherent plan to ensure the effective and timely implementation of the ACAR objectives. To that end, the establishment of an Afghan-led aviation donors coordinating group, under the JCMB framework, was approved.
