Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Nov 10 /Trend H. Hasanov/
It is planned to hold the fifth meeting of the Turkmen-Austrian Commission on November 27 in Ashgabat, an official Turkmen source said on Saturday.
President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov has approved the composition of the commission from the Turkmen side, appointing Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of the country Mergen Shaliyev as its leader "for the further development of bilateral cooperation between Turkmenistan and Austria".
President touched upon issues related to the implementation of the previously reached bilateral agreements with Austria in several key areas and opportunities for new investment projects at a recent government meeting, the local media reported.
Berdymuhamedov noted the dynamic nature of the cooperation and called the work of the joint commission - effective tool for increasing bilateral partnership.
Turkmenistan is one of the most important partners of Austria and the EU in the field of energy security. Nabucco project provides deliver of gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU and will diversify the sources of raw materials supply.
Turkmenistan could join the project through the implementation of the construction of a gas pipeline under the Caspian Sea to the coast of Azerbaijan, which has transit communications to European markets.
The representatives of OMV, which is one of equal partners in the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International - the project company of Nabucco often visited Ashgabat as part of the Austrian delegation.
Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer during his last year's visit to Ashgabat noted that Europe "is interested in the supply of natural gas from Turkmenistan."
The head of Austria spoke about the possibilities of cooperation in the implementation of the Nabucco pipeline project, in which the Austrian side played the active role. In this case, the federal president expressed support for the policy pursued by Turkmenistan in the field aimed at diversifying export routes of energy supply, including in the European direction.
Taking into account the report of British Petroleum (BP), Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world after Russia, Iran and Qatar on its natural gas reserves.
At present, a Caspian country has access to the markets of China, Iran and Russia.
Official Ashgabat put forward a number of international initiatives to ensure a reliable supply of energy to world markets, saying that the legal mechanism would allow it to take into account the interests of producers, consumers and transit countries. Additional gas pipelines to Russia (the Caspian gas pipeline through Kazakhstan), to Europe (via Azerbaijan: Trans-Caspian and Trans Anatolian gas pipelines) and India (Trans-Afghan gas pipeline through Pakistan) are amongst the planned gas pipelines.