(Turkmenistan.ru) - As the Turkmen State News Service (TDH) reports, during the forthcoming talks Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov and Mahmud Ahmadinezhad will discuss "urgent issues of the present day, the state of bilateral trade and economic partnership, and opportunities of regional cooperation in the interests of good neighbourliness".
The state news agency emphasizes that in the context of strengthening regional cooperation between Turkmenistan and Iran special attention will be paid to the "issues of stepping up the process of defining the legal status of the Caspian Sea with the aim of developing its hydrocarbon resources. The prospects of supplying natural gas to Europe will also be addressed."
It is also expected that a new price for Turkmen natural gas exported to Iran will be discussed in the course of Turkmen-Iranian talks. As expected, the heads of two states will sign a number of documents designed to bring the Turkmen-Iranian partnership to a qualitatively new level, reports Trend.
A solid normative base creates a broad area for effective bilateral cooperation in many respects. As of today, some 150 bilateral documents regulating cooperation on a wide range of directions have been signed between Turkmenistan and Iran. The increase in trade turnover year after year that reached about US $ 1 billion in 2005 is best evidence of the pace of development of interstate trade and economic relations.
By the end of the first half of 2006, Iran occupies the second place after Russia in imports from Turkmenistan. This is mainly the natural and liquefied gas, polypropylene and electricity.
The rich experience of the Turkmen-Iranian partnership has been accumulated in the years of long-term interstate cooperation and is supported by successful implementation of many large joint projects. Among them are Tejen-Sarahs-Mashhad railway line, Korpeje-Kord Kuy gas pipeline, Balkanabat-Aliabad modern power transmission line, Dostluk frontier water dam and many other facilities, which played an important role in the region's economic development.
An exhibition of Iranian goods will open in Ashgabat on 25 July and the presidents of the two countries will take part in its opening ceremony. They will also inaugurate a terminal of Gowdan-Bajgiran international checkpoint on the border between the two countries.
The forthcoming visit of the Iranian leader to Turkmenistan will undoubtedly mark the beginning of a new stage in the constructive dialogue between the two countries and an important step in utilizing the rich economic potential of the two countries for the their benefit and prosperity, the Turkmen State News Service reports.