BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 19
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
A program of cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan for the period 2021-2023 was signed, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistan’s State News Agency.
The signing took place during a videoconference of the Turkmen-Kazakh inter-ministerial political consultations.
The parties discussed issues of deepening cooperation in the fuel and energy, transport and logistics, and industrial sectors, and expressed interest in developing relations in science, education, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals.
The interest was expressed in developing joint initiatives to tap the potential of Central Asia and neighboring regions.
The Caspian Sea region was discussed separately. A constructive exchange of views took place on expanding the partnership, in particular, in the transport and transit sector with the use of port infrastructure.
This year, Turkmenistan is preparing to hold the VI Summit of the Heads of the Caspian States. In this regard, proposals were made to optimize the agenda of the Summit.
The sides expressed their mutual readiness to continue working together in both bilateral and multilateral formats.
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are strategic partners. Two neighboring countries indicated the availability of significant potential for enhancing cooperation in the trade and economic sphere, transport and communications sector, energy.
Ashgabat and Nur-Sultan regularly discuss partnership issues in the gas sector and the development of cross-border mineral deposits.
Kazakhstan is involved in a big project to supply Central Asian gas to China. Since 2009, China National Petroleum Corporation has been purchasing Turkmen fuel transported through the territories of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Within the cooperation in the transport sector, the project on the construction of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran transnational railway was implemented in December 2014. The goods can be freely transported to the countries of the Persian Gulf, to the Indian Ocean, and transported to Europe via this trade route.
As earlier the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan told Trend, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are implementing the new projects in the transport sector.
The new project in the field of transport and logistics cooperation between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan is the construction of the highway from the Turkmen side to the border with Kazakhstan and the bridge over the Garabogazgol Gulf.
The ministry noted that the implementation of this project will allow increasing trade turnover, the volume of freight, and passenger traffic.
"This project will become another bright symbol of friendship between the two countries," the ministry added.
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