Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 13
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
The presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discussed joint regional projects over phone, Trend reports referring to Turkmenistan’s Altyn Asyr TV channel.
In this regard, it was stated that there is a multifaceted potential for the further development of productive partnerships in the trade and economic sphere, transport and communications sector, oil and gas industry, agriculture and in a number of other sectors, which opens up broad opportunities for the implementation of new joint projects of regional and interregional scale.
An exchange of views took place on topical issues of regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to pay a state visit to Turkmenistan. The dates of the visit will be agreed on through diplomatic channels, the information said.
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are discussing the prospects for trade and economic partnerships, the development of the legal framework, cooperation in the gas sector, agriculture, the development of transboundary mineral deposits, transport, environment and fisheries.
Kazakhstan is involved in a major project for the delivery of Central Asian gas to China. The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been buying Turkmen fuel since 2009, with the fuel being transported through the territories of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
In addition, the project for the construction of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran transnational railway was completed in December 2014. According to preliminary calculations, the annual volume of freight traffic may eventually reach 10-12 million tons.
On this trade route, freight can be freely transported to Gulf countries, to the Indian Ocean, and be exported to Europe.
In 2016, Kazakhstan joined the Central Asia – Middle East (Uzbekistan – Turkmenistan – Iran – Oman) transport corridor project. The new corridor will enable access to the ports of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman for Central Asian countries through an optimal route in the future.
Earlier it was reported that a project is being considered for creating a special zone of border trade on the border of Kazakhstan’s Mangystau Region and Turkmenistan’s Balkan Region.
Mangystau and Balkan regions are similar. Oil, gas and chemical industries dominate here. Both regions are big transport and logistics hubs, interconnected by sea, railway routes and motorways. The launch of regular flights is also being considered.
Both countries stress the need for increasing the trade turnover in such industries as metallurgy, mechanical engineering, building materials, food industry, chemical industry, light industry, and pharmaceutics.