Russia and Turkmenistan discussed issues of bilateral cooperation in the fields of energy, transport, state cadastre and cartography, healthcare, education, engineering geology and regional cooperation. Relevant sectoral negotiations were held in Ashgabat as part of a meeting of the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Russian-Turkmen Commission on Economic Cooperation, the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia reports.
The Russian delegation was headed by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexey Overchuk, and the Turkmen delegation was headed by Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov.
During the meeting, the Co-Chairs summed up the results of the negotiations, noting the positive dynamics of mutual trade, and also discussed further steps to implement promising areas of cooperation.
“The trade turnover between Russia and Turkmenistan increased by 47.9% in 8 months of 2024 compared to the same period last year,” said Dmitry Volvach, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia.
According to Volvach, Russia’s exports to Turkmenistan have increased, particularly in agricultural products, metals, and metal products. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan’s exports to Russia have also grown, with an increase in textiles, food products, and agricultural raw materials.
In order to maintain high growth rates of mutual trade turnover, Russia proposes Turkmenistan to join the agreement on duty-free trade in services in the CIS, which was signed in 2023 and entered into force in 2024 for all member countries of the association.
The agenda of the talks also included prospects for the development of logistics infrastructure in the Caspian Sea and the implementation of Russian-Turkmen projects.
“Russian companies are extremely interested in implementing promising projects in the field of ecommerce and transport, in opening direct flights between the cities of Astrakhan and Turkmenbashi, as well as in organizing cruise services on the Caspian Sea with the possibility for tourists to visit the seaports of the Caspian states, including Turkmenistan,” Volvach said.
Special attention was paid to issues of cooperation in the field of education — the implementation of the project for the construction of a new academic building of the joint Russian-Turkmen secondary school named after A. S. Pushkin in Ashgabat.
“We see that Russian higher education is in high demand in Turkmenistan — about 40 thousand citizens of the country study at Russian universities, while their number is constantly growing every year,” Dmitry Volvach noted.
The Turkmen side confirmed its interest in intensifying work on the opening of a joint Russian-Turkmen university. ///nCa, 31 October 2024