Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 10
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is slated to visit Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, the Turkmen State News Agency (TDH) reported March 10.
The visits were discussed at a government meeting.
"The head of state, noting with satisfaction [at the meeting] the constructive nature of relations with Kuwait and the UAE, pointed to an impressive potential and prospects for building up bilateral economic and trade ties, intensifying investment activities and business contacts, and deepening the traditional dialogue in the humanitarian and cultural areas aimed at strengthening ties of friendship between our countries and peoples," the report reads.
During each visit, it is planned to sign bilateral documents. Berdimuhamedov further stressed the importance of the upcoming high-level talks aimed at defining key cooperation vectors.
The UAE is already one of the five trade partners of Turkmenistan and the volume of trade between the two countries continues to grow. In December 2017, UAE Ambassador Hasan Abdullah Al-Adab told local media that in 2015 the total trade amounted to $1.33 billion, but in 2016 it reached $1.432 billion.
Turkmenistan is interested in discussing participation of large financial and investment structures of the Middle East in the transnational Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project.
Also, UAE companies are represented in the local energy market. Dragon Oil has been operating in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea since 1999 as part of a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). The company is one of the largest foreign investors in Turkmenistan. Another company - Petrofac - took part in implementation of a major service project for development of the Galkynysh gas field.
Turkmenistan and Kuwait are interested in discussing opportunities for activating contacts in the fuel and energy sector. Particularly, Turkmenistan and Kuwait have the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world, which is an important factor for mutual interest in cooperation on development and export of energy resources to international markets. Among the promising areas are investment, trade, construction, mining.