Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Dec. 4 / Trend H. Hasanov /
While accepting the credentials from newly appointed Kazakh Ambassador Orman Nurbayev, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed the joint strategic cooperation between the two countries, the Turkmen government said on Tuesday.
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have a long history of friendship, brotherhood and good neighbourliness. The sides exchanged views on the prospects of partnership in such areas as transport, telecommunications and the energy sector.
"Our existing common interest is stipulated by long historical and spiritual ties and the traditions of the Turkmen and Kazakh fraternal peoples," the information said.
The two countries are cooperating to deliver energy resources to the foreign markets. Kazakh oil is sent in a southerly direction to the Persian Gulf, while Turkmen gas northwards to Russia, Ukraine, Europe, as well as China.
Commissioning the Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kazakhstan - China gas pipeline in December 2009 was a significant event in this area. The gas pipeline can provide Kazakh southern regions with gas and on the other hand, export Turkmen gas to China.
The two neighbouring countries are implementing a project together with Iran to construct the Uzen-Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek-Gorgan, railway destimed to become an important component of the international transport North-South corridor.
The project is being implemented on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement signed between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran in 2007.
The North-South project will open the way for European and Asian countries to access Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. A similar opportunity will appear for the transit of goods from the countries of South and South-East Asia, the Indian Ocean to the Northern and Eastern Europe through Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have signed more than 60 interstate and intergovernmental agreements covering the various areas of cooperation, including the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, the agreement on trade-economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation until 2020.