Russian, Turkmenistani Presidents to discuss broad economic ties
Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, 29.11.2009
MOSCOW, November 29 (Itar-Tass) - President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow of Turkmenistan is expected to make a working visit to Moscow Sunday as part of a regular - and quite intense - Russian-Turkmenistani political dialogue at top level, the Kremlin press service said.
"Russian leaders praise friendly relations with Turkmenistan and attack significance to the further deepening and expansion of the mutually beneficial cooperation in politics, trade, education, culture, and other areas," the press service said. "Quite a few things have been done in recent years to develop bilateral relations, which are obviously on the rise now." It is expected that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Gurbanbuly Berdimuhammedow will focus their discussions on the buildup of trade and economic relations.
The Kremlin press service recalled that Medvedev made an official visit to Turkmenistan in July 2008.
In April 2007, Berdimuhammedow made a working visit to Moscow, and his state visit to Russia took place from March 24 through March 26 this year.
Progress of multisided Russian-Turkmenistani cooperation is quite obvious, the press service officials said.
Russia occupies position number one on the list of Turkmenistan's trade partners, as it accounted for 39.2% of the country's foreign trade last year. More specifically, it accounted for 50.5% in exports and 16% in imports.
Last year's trade turnover /exclusive of Turkmenistani gas exports/ more than doubled in size and reached $ 910 million versus $ 453.7 million in 2007.
Trade between the two countries continued growing in the first months of this year in spite of the global economic and financial crisis. The volume of transactions reached $ 832.9 million from January through September, inclusive of $ 801.8 million of imports from Russia.
Russia mostly exports machinery, equipment, transport vehicles, chemical products, metals and metal products, foodstuffs, and unprocessed agricultural products.
Turkmenistani exports to Russia /exclusive of natural gas/ mostly consist of chemicals, textiles, and mineral products.
At this moment, the sides are faced with the task of diversifying their bilateral trade and building up the sector of high-tech products and commodities with the high rate of processing, the Kremlin press service said.
Still, cooperation in the fuel and energy sector is likely to have major place at the talks, too.
The press service indicated in this connection that Russia and Turkmenistan maintain a stable relationship in that sphere. This stability relies on the long-term Agreement on Cooperation in the Gas Industry, which the two countries signed in 2003 to ensure supplies of Turkmenistani natural gas to Russia through to 2028.
"The Presidents will consider prospects for expanded cooperation in the agricultural sector, in transport, in telecommunications, and in the supplies of machine-building industry products," Kremlin officials said.
Turkmenistan has a total of 138 enterprises where the Russian businesses have stocks. The countries' business communities have registered 124 joint projects and commercial contracts worth almost a billion U.S. dollars.
Major Russian manufacturers - Gazprom, LUKOIL, RZD, KAMAZ, Itera, Stroytransgaz, Mobile Telesystems, and some others - have taken firm grounds in the Turkmenistani economy.
Dmitry Medvedev and Gurbanbuly Berdimuhammedow will also raise the issue of how to make cooperation between the two countries more efficient at the regional level. A total of 60 Russian constituent territories cooperate with counterparts in Turkmenistan, and 65% of bilateral trade turnover falls exactly on inter-regional transactions.
One of the significant developments in this sphere was the signing of an agreement with St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko on economic, scientific and cultural ties.
Turkmenistani officials and she also discussed the projects for development of the country's roads and, generally, transport infrastructures that were designed by a specialized company in St Petersburg.
The Russian government feels confident that Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow's visit will help build up the relations of partnership across a broad spectrum of areas -- in the bilateral, regional and multilateral international formats likewise, the press service said.
