The government delegation of Turkmenistan headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov went to Moscow on Tuesday, 6 December 2022, for a two-day visit.
On the first day of the visit, the foreign ministers of the two countries held talks.
“Turkmenistan is our close friend and strategic partner. We pay special attention to the development of bilateral relations and cooperation on regional and international affairs. The tone of our relations is set by the Presidents of the two countries, who have held 5 meetings this year alone,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, welcoming his Turkmen counterpart.
He also said that a regular meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation will be held on 7 December, for which a solid package of documents has been prepared. “This once again underlines the concrete and substantive nature of Russian-Turkmen contacts, which always result in agreements that contribute to the development of our countries and bilateral cooperation,” Lavrov said.
He also highlighted the importance of bilateral inter-parliamentary cooperation, the cooperation of the regions of Russia with Turkmenistan, which makes a tangible positive contribution to the development of interstate relations.
In turn, Meredov expressed gratitude to Russia for support of Turkmenistan’s international initiatives, including in such areas as energy security, sustainable transport, ecology, and a number of other areas.
The sides assessed the prospects for cooperation in the foreign policy arena, including in such aareas as maintaining and enhancing regional and global stability, cooperation on the Caspian and Aral issues, joint counteraction to new challenges and threats.
They also welcomed the high level of coordination between Russia and Turkmenistan on the main international platforms, including the CIS, the dialogue format “Central Asia plus Russia”, the “Caspian Five”, the UN, as well as within the framework of cooperation between Ashgabat and the SCO.
Touching upon the topic of humanitarian cooperation, the Russian chief diplomat highly appreciated the careful attitude of Turkmenistan to the Russian language and culture. He also mentioned a number of joint projects in this area – the construction of a new building of the Pushkin Russian Drama Theater in Ashgabat, the establishment of the Russian-Turkmen University, the renovation of the premises of the Turkmen-Russian school.
“We are ready to contribute to the further development of bilateral relations in these always priority areas – they are important for our people and for contacts between citizens. We appreciate the interest of Turkmen boys and girls in studying in the Russian Federation. We will continue to create the most comfortable conditions for your students,” the Russian Foreign Minister said.
Lavrov congratulated Meredov on the upcoming Neutrality Day. “It is symbolic that on this date, on the initiative of Turkmenistan and with the active support of most countries, including Russia, the International Day of Neutrality is celebrated. This testifies to the recognition by the world community of Turkmenistan’s merits in promoting humanistic principles and political approaches to solving any international problems,” he said.
The negotiations followed by signing a cooperation program between the foreign ministries of Turkmenistan and Russia for 2023-2024. ///nCa, 6 December 2022