Azernews.Az

ANKARA – The Turkic countries' parliamentary assembly, TurkPA, has set out a goal to draw Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to the organization, its secretary-general has said.

Ramil Hasanov told a news conference in Baku devoted to TurkPA’s one-year activity on Thursday that the Turkmen president attended the latest summit of the Turkic-speaking nations, for the first time in over a decade.

"A Turkmen president has not participated in any such summit from 1998 to 2010. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov joined this year’s 10th summit held in Istanbul and clearly stated there that Turkmenistan will be participating in the meetings of Turkic-speaking countries as an honorary guest but will not put pen to any documents, because ‘we are a neutral state and do not join blocs’".

Hasanov noted that the Turkmen parliament speaker will be among invitees at the TurkPA meeting to be held in the Kazakh capital Astana next March or April.

The TurkPA secretary-general said the Astana meeting will discuss a number of key issues. Primarily, participants plan to form three new committees of the assembly that will deal with a wide range of issues, including humanitarian and social cooperation, trade, energy, and international relations. Also, TurkPA intends to amend the bylaws of its secretariat to expedite the body’s work.

According to Hasanov, the Turkic countries’ ongoing efforts could facilitate future establishment of a single parliament and bringing into compliance their justice and customs systems.

"Common decisions on the justice and customs systems may be adopted in the future. As you know, the European Union has a single customs system, so, why shouldn’t Turkic-speaking states have one?"