KABUL - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has congratulated President Ashraf Ghani on winning a second term in office.

A statement from Ghani’s office on Friday said Morrison hoped the US-Taliban peace agreement would lead to stability in the war-battered country.

In a felicitation message, the PM hailed Ghani’s electoral victory and appreciated the Afghans for exercising their democratic right to vote in the current circumstances.

Commenting on longstanding bilateral relations Morrison recalled first Afghan camel drivers visited Australia in 1860.

He also mentioned Australia’s development assistance to Afghanistan and support Kabul for warding off the threat posed by international terrorism.

The premier lauded the Afghan government’s role in securing the release of Australian professor Timothy Weekes, 50, from Taliban custody. Weeks had been kidnapped in Kabul in 2016.

In his message, Morrison hoped the US-Taliban peace deal, which was inked in Doha last month, would pave the ground for stability in Afghanistan. (Pajhwok)