Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, July 10 / Trend H.Hasanov /
The OSCE Center in Ashgabat recently launched new projects to enhance maritime security, Ivo Petrov, the head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, said today in a statement timed with the twentieth anniversary of cooperation between the country and the organization.
"Continuing the successful cooperation in the field of aviation safety, the Centre has recently launched new projects aimed at enhancing maritime security," the diplomat said.
He said that within the framework of military-political dimension the activities of the center are aimed at improving the qualifications of agencies responsible for border security, and strengthening the security of stockpiles of weapons and ammunition. Particular attention is paid to issues such as the OSCE's actions in the field of building confidence and security and combating terrorism and illicit trafficking in drugs and weapons.
Turkmenistan has approved a program of the development of Naval Forces of the Armed Forces until 2015. In June 2010, the Naval Institute of the Defence Ministry was created.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in October 2011 noted that Turkmenistan "as well as any State that has access to the sea, needs ships to patrol its maritime borders, to maintain their security and counter such negative phenomena and the challenges of today such as terrorism, organized poaching crime, and drug trafficking."
The country's leader said this during a visit to one of naval units, located in the suburb of Turkmenbashi.
"The Caspian Sea should always be and will be a sea of friendship and harmony. Turkmenistan's policy of neutrality, transparency and good neighborliness aims at this. This is consistent with a purely defensive doctrine," Berdimuhamedov said.
Turkmenistan has adopted military doctrine, the essence of which remained unchanged in recent years: defense sufficiency, a policy of positive neutrality and refusal to participate in military-political blocs.