Turkmenistan-Russia: course on diversification of partnership
The strategic partnership agreement between Turkmenistan and Russia is in the Russian parliament in the stage of ratification. As reported by the Parliamentary Newspaper, the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots supported the draft law on ratification of this treaty and recommended that parliamentarians adopt it in the first reading. According to experts, ratification of the treaty will allow countries to intensify bilateral cooperation. Russia and Turkmenistan in recent years are developing partnerships in all areas of bilateral relations. At the same time, if earlier the center of gravity of cooperation was in the fuel and energy sector, now the parties are making efforts to diversify the interaction. Currently, the Turkmen-Russian partnership covers trade, construction, transport, agriculture, culture, science, education and other areas. The most productive is the interaction of the two states in the sphere of education. Thousands of Turkmen students study at Russian universities, and considerable merit in this is the higher educational institutions of a friendly country that regularly conduct presentations and exhibitions of educational services in Turkmenistan. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, last year 265 Turkmen students entered the budget departments of Russian universities, and about 18,000 Turkmen young people study in Russian universities in total. According to Karasin, the specificity of Turkmen-Russian cooperation lies in the fact that Turkmenistan declared neutrality as the main rule in external relations. Nevertheless, this does not prevent the state from participating in many integration projects in the post-Soviet space. The parliamentary newspaper reports that the bill on ratification of the treaty on strategic partnership between Russia and Turkmenistan will be considered in the first reading at one of the upcoming State Duma sessions.
