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Ashgabat, Astana seek deeper interaction

18 September 2017 11:50 (UTC+04:00)
Ashgabat, Astana seek deeper interaction

By Kamila Aliyeva

A meeting between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev saw discussions of prospects for developing the relations between the two countries.

Nazarbayev arrived in the country to participate in large-scale celebrations in honor of the opening of the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts games held on September 17.

During the meeting, Berdimuhamedov stressed that bilateral relations between the two countries are developing dynamically.

This is a good basis for close cooperation within authoritative international structures, primarily the UN, and for mutual understanding on major global and regional issues, where Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have common or similar positions, he noted.

In this context, Nazarbayev highly appreciated the initiatives of Ashgabat to address water and environmental issues and Turkmenistan's extensive work as the presiding officer of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea.

The heads of the two countries further discussed the prospects for interstate cooperation, concretized priority areas and called for an active build-up of mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation, expansion of business, humanitarian, scientific and educational contacts.

Recognizing the existing potential of the partnership in strategic areas such as energy and transport, the sides noted the exceptional importance of the ‘North-South’ project and the construction of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway.

The total length of the railway reaches 900 kilometers. From the economic point of view, the whole railway represents the shortest way for delivering cargo, including transit cargoes, and passenger transportation in the future.

The constructed highway becomes the most important link in the formation of modern transport infrastructure, which will bring the economic and trade partnership between the Central Asian nations and neighboring regions to an entirely new level, the Turkmen government reported.

Diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan were established on October 5, 1992. The legal framework of bilateral cooperation includes more than 70 documents.

The trade turnover between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for the end of 2015 amounted to $319.7 million, while in January-August of 2016 it was $177.1 million.

Plant products, metal goods, natural calcium phosphate, timber and its products, rolled metal products, as well as flour, confectionary and flour products are major export items of Kazakhstan.

In its turn, Turkmenistan exports to Kazakhstan gas, oil and petroleum products, motor vehicles, fresh and refrigerated tomatoes, engines and power plants.

Ashgabat and Astana are actively cooperating in the energy sector. After a common gas pipeline was commissioned in 2009, Turkmen gas is supplied to China through Kazakhstan.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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