Oriented on making people closer

Following the talks held on October 10 in Ashgabat, Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made a joint statement to the media.

At the briefing, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov spoke about current and future areas of cooperation and noted the constructive nature of the Turkmen-Kazakh dialogue.

A high assessment was given to the current level of bilateral dialogue, which is being conducted in all areas in politics, economics, and the cultural and humanitarian sphere, the head of Turkmenistan noted.

The presidents expressed satisfaction with the results of the talks aimed at further strengthening Kazakh-Turkmen relations.

Particular attention was paid to bilateral trade issues. Thanks to joint efforts, trade turnover between the two countries increased by 28% last year, exceeding half a billion dollars, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said, expressing the opinion that bilateral trade turnover could be increased to 1 billion dollars in the near future.

As noted at the briefing, the priority task was to expand cooperation in the energy sector. "Kazakhstan intends to take an active part in projects to develop gas condensate fields in Turkmenistan, as well as in expanding pipeline infrastructure," Tokayev said.

Oil and gas companies of Kazakhstan are also interested in establishing cooperation with their Turkmen colleagues in the field of oilfield services in the Caspian Sea.

Steady growth is also observed in the volume of cargo transportation across the territory of our countries. Last year, the volume of rail transportation between them increased by 20% and reached about 1.5 million tons. A special role here is given to the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, which is an important link in the North-South transport corridor. The tasks of connecting the road infrastructure on the border of the two states in the direction of Turkmenbashi-Garabogaz-the border of Kazakhstan are being systematically implemented.

The broad prospects for the construction of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Afghanistan railway route were discussed. The parties are holding substantive negotiations on this topic. The possibility of the earliest possible resumption of regular air traffic between the two countries was also discussed.

In the humanitarian sphere, the parties agreed to consider the prospects for opening branches of Kazakh universities in Turkmenistan.

Particular attention was paid to issues of ensuring stability and security in Central Asia.

ORIENT news

Photo: akorda.kz