Russia, Turkmenistan sign number of cooperation documents

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

Ashgabat hosted high-level talks between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Following the October 2 talks, the sides signed 14 bilateral documents, including on cooperation in culture, tourism, agriculture, humanitarian spheres and other areas, the Turkmen government reported.

The presidents have put their signatures to a bilateral treaty on strategic partnership, TASS reported.

During the talks, Turkmen leader expressed hope that the Caspian Seas status will be resolved soon. A convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea may be finally coordinated at a next summit of the region’s states which will be held in Kazakhstan, he said.

"We hope that the issue of finishing joint work on a convention on the Caspian status may be considered already at the fifth summit of the Caspian Sea states. This issue is of strategic importance for us, and I think that all of us, the Caspian Sea countries, will come out in favor of settling it," Berdimuhamedov said.

The sides also voiced aim to improve trade and business relations between two countries.

A plan of actions and projects for the implementation of the Program of Economic Cooperation between the Governments of Turkmenistan and Russia for 2017-2019 was agreed during the meeting. This is a kind of ‘road map’ of interaction for a three-year period.

The quality and volumes of bilateral trade and economic cooperation can and should be significantly increased, brought into line with objective opportunities and the available potential, the Turkmen President said at the meeting in expanded format.

Putin, in turn, said that the countries put much emphasis on trade-economic cooperation.

"Unfortunately, last year our trade saw a certain decline for different reasons, I think first of all for objective reasons - currency exchange rate fluctuations, unfavorable world situation and some other factors," the president said.

He reiterated that Moscow and Ashgabat have created a system of cooperation mechanisms in different sectors, and the key role in this belongs to the intergovernmental commission.

Besides, the president said, the program of economic cooperation until 2018 is aimed at improving the structure of trade. It includes 80 events and projects.

"The implementation of this document will help to expand investment cooperation, which in my opinion is very important," the president said.

The Turkmen leader, in turn, noted that it is necessary to implement specific projects, use the geographical and infrastructural advantages of both countries and seek new directions. First of all - in strategic spheres such as industry, transport and communications, energy, agro-industrial complex and new technologies.

“We highly appreciate and welcome the work of large Russian companies on the Turkmen market, in particular, in such areas as automotive, aircraft building, shipbuilding,” Berdimuhamedov said.

Cooperation in the field of logistics also came to the forefront. The use of the port infrastructure of the two countries on the Caspian Sea - in the cities of Turkmenbashi and Astrakhan and the ferry between them – appears to be promising.

The most important part of such cooperation is the creation of a Turkmen trade and logistics center on the territory of the Astrakhan region.

As for the partnership in the agro-industrial complex and the textile industry, Turkmenistan also confirmed readiness for its further development, increase of supplies of Turkmen agricultural products and textiles to Russia.

Turkmenistan is also ready to establish mutually beneficial cooperation in the supply of oil, gas and chemical products, consumer goods to Russia.

Stressing the interest of the Turkmen side in raising the level and quality of interaction with Russia in the sphere of high technologies, the Turkmen leader expressed his belief in the need to give the bilateral economic partnership a clearly expressed innovative, high-tech character.

The priority areas of trade and economic cooperation also include the banking and financial sector, support for export-import operations and joint foreign economic projects.

Both countries cooperate effectively in a wide range of areas, including the trade and economic sphere, energy and transport and communication sectors as well as the agro-industrial complex.

Russia holds a leading position in the ranking of Turkmenistan’s biggest foreign trade partners. In recent years, cooperation at the regional level has intensified, including with Tatarstan, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan, Sverdlovsk regions of Russia.

More than 190 enterprises with the participation of Russian capital are registered in the Turkmen market, and they execute more than 240 investment projects.

Gas supply was one of the strategic areas of partnership between Turkmenistan and Russia until recently.  But in 2016, Russia - a traditional buyer - has stopped the purchase of Turkmen gas.

In 2015 bilateral trade volume between two countries decreased by 21 percent to $0.97 billion compared to $1.23 billion in 2014. Turkmen exports to Russia fell to $0.07 billion (by 20 percent) while imports fell to $0.90 billion (by 21 percent).