Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, 1 October / corr. Trend H. Hasanov /
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov arrived on Monday in Ashgabat International Airport on a two-day official visit, the official Turkmen source said.
Signing of a package of intergovernmental agreements is scheduled after high-level talks in expanded format.
The visit is taking place ahead of a significant date: the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The two states are linked a number of large projects, particularly a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan opened in December 2009. Countries shall consider the possibility of co-operation and in the implementation of the railway project that would connect Central Asia with the Persian Gulf.
Ashgabat and Tashkent are exploring ways to increase mutual investment, implement mutually beneficial projects in various sectors, diversification of joint activities.
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan could bring its bilateral trade to one billion dollars in the next two years. This forecast was made during the eighth session of the Uzbek-Turkmen Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation held in early September in Tashkent.
Trade relations are governed by an intergovernmental agreement of the main directions of the long-term trade and economic cooperation, signed in January 1996.