ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Feb. 13
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
Gurbanmyrat Annaev has been appointed as Turkmen minister of national security, Trend reports referring to a presidential decree.
His predecessor, Yaylym Berdiev, has been relieved of his post due to transfer to another job.
Since 1995, Turkmenistan has followed the status of positive neutrality, defense sufficiency and hasn’t been a party to any of the military-political blocs.
Turkmenistan borders on land with Kazakhstan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and on the Caspian Sea with Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran.
Ashgabat is actively involved in the discussion of regional security issues.
Thus, in February this year, Russian-Turkmen consultations were held in the Turkmen capital at the level of deputy foreign ministers in charge of international cooperation in the fight against terrorism. In particular, the topic of transnational crime in the Caspian Sea was raised. In general, the parties exchanged assessments of the state of global and regional terrorist threats emanating from the territory of Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa.
Prior to that, in January, a meeting with the delegation of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) was held at the Turkmen State Customs Service. The meeting participants discussed the CENTCOM program for the exchange of experience in combating various types of mass weapons - chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear ones.