Konstantin Sabiashvili, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to Turkmenistan
This year, on May 26, Georgia celebrates the 33rd anniversary of the restoration of state independence. For centuries, the Georgian people have tirelessly fought for independence and the right to determine their own destiny. As you know, Georgian statehood dates back more than three thousand years. We are deservedly proud of the cultural heritage of our people, which has become part of world civilization.
Over the years of independence, Georgia, despite the challenges, has unwaveringly followed the course of strengthening its statehood, developing a free market economy, improving the social situation of the population, building a civil society, and establishing friendly, constructive and business relations with all civilized countries of the world. The main goal of Georgia’s foreign policy is to create stable conditions for the construction of a democratic state and a free liberal economy, and to restore territorial integrity through peaceful means. The main foreign policy priority of our country – full-scale integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures – directly follows from this goal. In December 2023, Georgia received candidate status for the European Union. We are proud that for the first time since independence, the Georgian national football team will take part in the UEFA EURO 2024 European Football Championship in Germany.
Georgia highly values its close relationship with Turkmenistan. This is facilitated by the historically established good relations between our peoples, as well as the geographical location of Georgia and Turkmenistan.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations (07/16/1992), we have achieved significant results in the development of interstate relations and are optimistic about the future. Today we can safely talk about the special nature of bilateral relations, which are built on a solid foundation of traditions and friendship between our peoples. We express our readiness to continue making every effort to identify new promising areas of cooperation.
Georgia and Turkmenistan interact fruitfully in international organizations and I want to assure that we will continue to support Turkmenistan’s initiatives aimed at ensuring peace, stability and economic development in the region and the world.
We see great prospects in cooperation with Turkmenistan, which we consider not only an important partner, but also a friend. We see it as extremely important to expand cooperation in the political, diplomatic, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.
The priority area of interaction is the joint implementation of large regional and interregional transport and energy projects. Georgia attaches great importance to cooperation in the field of transit of goods, including energy resources, through its territory, and creates the most favorable conditions for this.
The recent geopolitical developments have increased the need for countries to build more resilient economies and diversify traditional trade routes through improved connectivity, which can only be achieved through the coordinated participation of all stakeholders, including the public and private sectors. To strengthen relationships in our region, the active participation of our countries in the further development of large regional transport projects is of strategic importance.
Being a reliable transit partner, Georgia will continue to contribute to the implementation and development of transport projects, such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the Black Sea – Caspian Sea transport route, TRACECA, the Lapis Lazuli transport route, and the project “Green ports”. We are confident that the implementation of these strategic projects will increase the efficiency of transporting goods from Asia to Europe through the Caspian and Black Seas, thereby expanding trade and economic relations and promoting the development of interregional ties.
Turkmenistan has been and remains a reliable and trustworthy partner in the energy sector, and we hope that existing relations will develop in new directions. The Georgian side supports and expresses its readiness to provide active assistance to new projects for transporting Turkmen gas through Georgian territory to Turkey and further westward through the pipelines of the Southern Gas Corridor, including “green” energy.
It should be noted that the Government of Georgia, like Turkmenistan, is making significant investments in infrastructure projects. We pay special attention to the development of transport and transit, as well as energy corridors and increasing freight turnover. It is planned to build a new deep-water port of Anaklia, as well as a new airport in Tbilisi, two airports in Telavi and Svaneti.
Georgia is ready to increase cargo flows through its territory and offers the Turkmen side the use of existing or creation of new infrastructure (terminals, warehouses) in Georgian seaports for storing and transporting Turkmen cargo to Europe and back.
Cooperation between Georgia and Turkmenistan has great prospects, which is largely due to intensified political contacts between the leaders of our countries. The main political event of 2024 was the official visit of the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili to Ashgabat and bilateral meetings with the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, and the Chairman of the Mejlis Dunyagozel Gulmanova. In February 2024, another round of political consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries took place in Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan is one of the interesting tourism markets for Georgia, and we express our readiness to continue cooperation in the field of tourism. In March 2024, the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization Zurab Pololikashvili, as well as representatives of the Resort Development Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, took part in the international tourism conference in Ashgabat for the first time. In order to promote the development of tourism between the two countries, in March 2024, the Embassy of Georgia received representatives of leading travel agencies of Turkmenistan. Direct flights between our countries can give an impetus to the development of trade and economy, as well as tourism.
In June 2023, a delegation from the Kakheti region visited Turkmenistan and took part in the opening ceremony of the new “smart” city of Arkadag. At the same time, the mayors of the cities of Arkadag and Telavi signed a document on friendship between the cities.
In June 2023, a regular meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation was held in Tbilisi, and for the first time in bilateral relations, a business forum and B2B meetings were held, in which about 200 companies took part.
The official visit of the Prime Minister of Georgia to Turkmenistan (2022) gave impetus to bilateral relations.
Bilateral trade between Georgia and Turkmenistan is growing. There is still a lot of potential in this direction that remains to be realized. The efforts of the relevant structures of our countries are intensifying to fully realize the potential of the Lapis-Lazuli and Black Sea – Caspian Sea transport and transit corridors to attract new cargo. Further expansion of cooperation between Georgia and Turkmenistan in the energy sector seems promising. The project of transmitting “green” energy via the Black Sea cable is being actively implemented.
Cooperation in the field of culture is developing and deepening. On the initiative of the Embassy, for the third year now, young musicians from Turkmenistan, as part of the Youth Symphony Orchestra, have been participating in the prestigious Tsinandali International Classical Music Festival. On February 25, 2023, the conductor of the Pan-Caucasian Orchestra of the Tsinandali Festival, maestro Claudio Vandelli, visited Turkmenistan and gave a concert of classical music with the Symphony Orchestra of Turkmenistan at the National Music and Drama Theater named after Magtymguly. On May 20–21, 2023, an exhibition of applied works by Georgian craftsmen, “Georgian Minankari,” was organized at the Museum of Fine Arts. By decision of the Government of Turkmenistan, a monument to the great Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli was erected in the park adjacent to the memorial complex of the great Turkmen poet and thinker Magtymkul Fragi, for which we are very grateful to the Government of Turkmenistan and personally to His Excellency the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov.
I would like to note with satisfaction the positive dynamics of bilateral relations between Georgia and Turkmenistan, and express my readiness to contribute in every possible way to the deepening and further development of our cooperation. ///Neutral Turkmenistan Newspaper, 25 May 2024