Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Dec. 15 / corr Trend D.Azizov /
Uzbekistan is interested in further cooperation with Turkmenistan, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said in a meeting with media representatives during his official visit to Ashgabat, the Presidential administration said.
"We regard the current official visit as a significant and important event in the history of relations between the two fraternal countries and nations as a logic end of fruitful meetings on the top in Ashgabat and Tashkent, which have become intensive and dynamic over the past few years," the statement said.
The Uzbek President noted the significance of talks held in Uzbekistan in February, as well as the signing of joint documents. "The events were a bright testimony for new practical content filled in relations of deep mutual respect, which were tested by times and history," the document said.
The recent bilateral talks held in an atmosphere of friendship and full understanding, demonstrated the proximity or identity of estimations, visions and position of the sides on the most key problems in the international policy and regional cooperation, Karimov said .
"It is symbolic that our talks with Gurbangulu Berdimuhammadov are held in the run up to really a remarkable historic event - opening of the Trans-continental gas pipeline Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China.
This large-scale project which Uzbekistan unilaterally backed since the beginning plays a tremendous role for all countries of the region and implies appearance of fundamentally new and economic fuel and energy infrastructure in the Central Asia, Karimov said.
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan confirmed unified approaches and readiness to coordinate the actions directed at neutralizing contemporary threats and security challenges and stability of the two countries and the region in whole, the official statement read.
Uzbekistan also supports the overall balanced and well-though out foreign policy of neutral Turkmenistan, the Turkmen President's initiatives, directed at modernizing his country, socio-economic development, and the country's increasing international image.
"As a result of 2008, the Uzbek-Turkmen goods turnover increased by 50 percent and as a result of nine months of 2009 by 40 percent more to $130 billion," Karimov said. "There are still opportunities for growth in this direction."
The sides reaffirmed mutual interests in further progress of cultural and humanitarian cooperation.
I appreciate each our meeting with Berdimuhammedov and using this opportunity I officially invite him to visit Uzbekistan. We will show him a hospitality, which we witnessed in Turkmenistan," Karimov said.
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