Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Dec. 10 /Trend H. Hasanov/
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov received UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman on Monday, the Turkmen government said.
Priorities for the further development of a productive partnership for global security and sustainable development between Turkmenistan and the UN were discussed during the meeting, which was held in a very constructive atmosphere.
The UN envoy arrives to participate in the international conference "Turkmenistan's neutrality and preventive diplomacy: the foundations of peace and security," which will be opened in Ashgabat on Tuesday.
Turkmenistan's cooperation with the UN and its related bodies is one of the key vectors of the country's positive neutrality based foreign policy. The United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia has been located in Ashgabat since 2007.
Turkmenistan has a long border with Afghanistan, on the territory of which there are long-time tensions and instability.
UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan Jan Kubis recently visited Ashgabat. He noted important projects in the energy and transport sectors initiated by the Turkmen side, that include the construction of a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipe line, that is currently underway.
The start of the project was signed in Ashgabat in late 2010. The Turkmen side conducted several international road shows for TAPI in September with the participation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It was reported that Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP, BG Group, RWE, Petronas and other companies became familiarized with the main terms of project implementation and expressed intentions to participate in it.