Astana, 28 May 2024 (TDI): Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtileu held talks with Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov, who came to Astana on an official visit.
During the negotiations, the foreign ministers discussed a broad range of issues concerning Kazakh-Turkish cooperation. This included the current state and prospects of collaboration in political, trade-economic, transit-transport, energy, and cultural-humanitarian sectors.
The primary focus was on the practical implementation of agreements reached during the state visits of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Ashgabat in October 2021 and President Serdar Berdimuhamedov to Astana in October 2022, as well as the official visit of the Kazakh Foreign Minister to Ashgabat in October last year.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan emphasized that thanks to the political will of the heads of state, the relations between the countries have risen to a qualitatively new level in recent years.
Moreover, Special attention was paid to the further expansion of trade and economic cooperation.
In the last five years, the volume of mutual trade between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan has increased 4 times. In 2023, this figure will increase by 28% and reach 563 million US dollars.
“In the first quarter of this year, the volume of trade between the two countries exceeded 100 million dollars. The positive trends that are taking place instill great confidence in fulfilling the task of the heads of state to bring our mutual trade up to 1 billion dollars shortly,” said Foreign Minister Nurtleu.
Furthermore, the ministers noted the significant potential of cooperation in the field of energy, including the prospects for the implementation of joint projects.
Turkmenistan Foreign Minister R.Meredov said, “Turkmenistan, for its part, supports Kazakhstan in the implementation of all its initiatives and recommendations at the global and regional level. I am sure that our talks today will contribute to the further development of cooperation between Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.”
Also, the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan highlighted the substantial agenda of cultural and humanitarian cooperation.
Following the instructions of their respective heads of state, Astana will host the Days of Culture of Turkmenistan this year, while the Days of Culture of Kazakhstan will be held in Ashgabat.
During the meeting, the ministers “aligned their clocks” on relevant aspects of the international and regional agenda, confirmed their commitment to further close cooperation within the framework of multilateral structures, as well as to continue providing mutual support in promoting the initiatives of the two states.
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The parties declared the importance of deepening regional cooperation, in particular, the need to complete the signing of the tripartite treaty on friendship, good neighborliness, and cooperation aimed at the development of Central Asia in the 21st century.
