Tashkent outlined plans for economic and transport cooperation with Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan has recently announced the "Priority directions of development of foreign policy and foreign economic cooperation with major foreign partners in the medium term" approved by the President Mirziyoyev. According the road map, Tashkent puts at the forefront of foreign activity relations with its closest neighbors – the countries of Central Asia, including Turkmenistan, with which the Republic shares one of its longest borders. In accordance with the document, Uzbekistan aims to bring the trade turnover with Turkmenistan to US $ 500 million. The planned figure is considerably higher than the existing indicators. It is planned to achieve this target by expanding cross-border cooperation and by holding joint forums and councils. Strengthening of financial and investment ties, industrial cooperation will also contribute to increase the volume of commodity exchange. In the transport and communication sphere, Uzbekistan plans to supply its goods to the markets of Europe and Turkey in transit through Turkmenistan's largest logistics hub in the Caspian sea - the international port of Turkmenbashi. The matter is arrangement of transit cargo flows on the multimodal route Tashkent - Turkmenbashi - Baku - Tbilisi - Kars. There are also a number of steps to enhance the participation of the Uzbek side in the project of the international transport corridor Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman. In particular, Tashkent will establish direct air links with Tehran, as well as with the Indian cities of Kolkata and Bangalore. In February this year, India became an official party to the Ashgabat agreement on the creation of the Central Asia – Middle East corridor. The priorities of the medium-term agenda in political relations with the Central Asian region include the finalization of the delimitation and demarcation of state borders, immediate settlement of water issues, and the strengthening of inter-parliamentary contacts, public organizations and peoples-to-peoples contacts. At present time, Ashgabat and Tashkent are preparing for the summit talks, to be held in the Uzbek capital and designed to become one of the landmark events in the history of bilateral relations.
