A telephone conversation was held today between President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida.

“At the beginning of the conversation, Prime Minister Kishida explained that following the earthquake that occurred off the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture on August 8 and the strong earthquake warning issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency on the same day, he decided to postpone his participation in the Central Asia Plus Japan Dialogue summit in order to address crisis management and disaster response issues,” the Japanese prime minister’s office reported.

Kishida stressed that Japan is ready to continue to actively promote its relations with Central Asia, as well as bilateral relations with Turkmenistan. He expressed gratitude for the preparations for his visit and said that, unfortunately, he was unable to visit Central Asia this time, but would like to coordinate his future visits accordingly.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov said that he understands Prime Minister Kishida's decision and that he would like to continue working with Japan to further strengthen bilateral relations.

Turkmenistan highly values the level of interstate relations with Japan and attaches particular importance to their further development in all priority areas, Serdar Berdimuhamedov said. "At the same time, there was confirmed interest not only in close cooperation between Turkmenistan and Japan on a bilateral basis, but also in partnership within the framework of authoritative international organizations, primarily the United Nations," the state news agency TDH said.

During the conversation, it was noted that an important place in the Turkmen-Japanese dialogue is given to the intensification of trade and economic contacts.

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