Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, heading a high-ranking delegation, arrived in Ashgabat on Tuesday morning to confer with Turkmen officials on the further development and deepening of mutual cooperation between the two countries, Fars News Agency reported.
The Iranian interior minister was welcomed at the airport by Turkmenistan's Interior Minister Isgender Mulikow.
Among the Iranian officials in the Iranian delegation accompanying the interior minister are the governors of Golestan Province and North Khorassan Province as well as a number of MPs.
During the visit, the two sides will review the latest conditions of cooperation between the two countries and discuss expansion of bilateral ties and cooperation proportionate to the potentials and capacities of both states.
Najjar is also due to attend meetings with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredev, his counterpart Mulikow and other Turkmen officials.
Iran has recently enhanced efforts to boost political, economic and cultural ties and cooperation with the regional and neighboring countries, specially those in the Central Asia.
In a visit to Turkmenistan in January 2010, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underlined completion of different joint economic projects in the Central Asian country, including a transit road linking Iran and Turkmenistan.
Also in May, Managing-Director of Sarakhs Special Economic Zone Hossein Alipour stressed the need for the completion of the transit road, saying that the route would bring economic prosperity to the region.
Alipour said that the 14.6 km-long transit road would serve as a gate for the two neighboring countries' trade exchanges, and pointed out that there has just remained 3.2km of road construction before this goal can be materialized.
Also, Iran has signed an agreement with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to construct a railroad linking the three countries.
The primary agreement on the construction of the railroad between Iran-Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was signed between presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in April 2007 in the city of Turkmenbashi and its final agreement was signed in a summit meeting in Tehran in September of the same year among the three presidents.
The total route of the railway is 1000 kilometers, of which 90 kilometers would be in Iran, 700 kilometers in Turkmenistan and 210 kilometers in Kazakhstan.
The operational phase of the railway project, one of Iran's biggest contracts on export of engineering and technical services to a foreign country, began simultaneously with President Ahmadinejad's visit to Turkmenistan on January 6.