( Itar-Tass ) - Tajik authorities consider a two-day official visit of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to the republic as "a real breakthrough in Tajik-Turkmen relations, which were actually frozen in the post-Soviet period, a spokesman for the Tajik Foreign Ministry said.
He noted that, according to the results of eight months of the current year, foreign trade turnover between the two countries hardly exceeded 32 million dollars. Turkmenistan ranks sixth in the list of CIS trade partners of Tajikistan. Russia and Kazakhstan are at the head of the list.
In a talk with ITAR-TASS, the foreign ministry spokesman specially pointed to the fact that "this is the first over the whole post-Soviet period official visit of the Turkmen head of state to Tajikistan, while in Soviet times, such visits were made actually every year."
During the visit, the sides plan to sign ten documents, including a Treaty on friendship, good-neighbourliness and cooperation. Sources in the Tajik government hope that at meetings, the sides will discuss issues of supplies of Turkmen electric power to Tajikistan, as well as attraction of Turkmen investments to mining, hydro-energy and other major projects.
In the first half of October 5, Berdymukhamedov is to visit a number of fruit and vegetable farms of the Gissar Valley and familiarize himself with famous vineyards at one of Dekhkan farms, as well as visit the Tajik aluminium plant.
In the afternoon, the Turkmen president will take part in a CIS summit.