OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2010. President of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Medvedev is arriving on a working visit to Turkmenistan today. A new Turkmen-Russian top level meeting, which will take place in the littoral town of Turkmenbashi, will focus on priority aspects of bilateral relations initially built on an equal, constructive and long-term basis and issues of regional and international politics of mutual interest.

Cooperation between Turkmenistan and Russia, which has a strategic nature, has been offered a powerful impetus to develop and brought to a qualitatively new level in recent years that testifies to invariable adherence of our states to the traditional ties of friendship and the mutual willingness to foster mutually advantageous partnership in both bilateral and multilateral formats. This intention to deepen and intensify the fruitful dialogue is dictated by the time itself, the profound experience of collaboration and huge potential of interaction, the implementation of which meets the interests of our two peoples.

The intention of Turkmenistan and Russia to continue to pursue the strategy for deepening and expanding effective cooperation is illustrated by regular meetings of the leaders of the two states, each of which turns into a trustful and at the same time businesslike exchange of views on key issues of partnership aimed at concrete results.

Covering a wide spectrum of fields, the potential of Turkmen-Russian collaboration opens up the most favourable opportunities for effectively concerting efforts in various spheres. These include trade and economy, the fuel and energy sector, industry, transport, communications and telecommunications, advanced technologies, investment activity, etc. A critical role is assigned to the bilateral intergovernmental commission that is to become a working mechanism for implementing reached agreements, promote bilateral trade, develop new optimal formats and approaches to diversification of cooperation.

In recent years contacts between Turkmenistan and Russia have been dynamically developed in the format of regions and become a significant component of interstate relations. The reliable bridges of friendship are built between Turkmenistan and he largest regions of the Russian Federation, including the Republic of Tatarstan, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan Oblast and others, an exchange of delegations takes place on a regular basis that also evidences the readiness of the two countries for fruitful long-term collaboration.

A vivid illustration of successful economic partnership is many Russian companies which operate on the Turkmen market and actively collaborate in implementing a number of joint projects in the oil and gas sector, a strategic one for both countries, showing keen interest in enhancing business contacts.

The particular examples of mutually advantageous cooperation between Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation in the energy sector include the Central Karakum-Yylany gas pipeline built under the contract concluded by the Turkmengaz State Concern with the Russian company MRK-Engineering affiliated with the Itera International Group of companies. As is known, this gas pipeline 198.2 kilometres long, which will enable to increase ‘blue fuel’ exports from Turkmenistan to Russia, was put into operation last week.

Given the large-scale projects to be launched in the near future including the construction of the Caspian gas pipeline cooperation in the oil and gas industry viewed as a key vector of bilateral partnership has the great future prospects. Such is the transport and communications sector where Turkmenistan has put forward the initiatives to build effective regional and international infrastructure including the North-South trunk railway as its integral component. Another critical aspect is regular communication between the seaports in Turkmenbashi and Olya.

A key priority of Turkmen-Russian relations is, certainly, collaboration in the humanitarian and cultural sphere, to which both countries attach particular significance. Today, these fruitful contacts are filled with a new content. With every passing year contacts in the education and science spheres expand, Turkmen young citizens study at leading institutions of higher education in Russia, a branch of I.M. Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas is opened in Ashgabat. Last December A.S. Pushkin Turkmen-Russian School moved to the new building supplied with state-of-the-art equipment. It is symbolic that President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and RF President Dmitriy Medvedev attended the opening ceremony. Also, the two countries have intensified significantly cultural exchanges have, Turkmen and Russian workers of culture and art enhance contacts.

The good, very promising opportunities are opened up in the tourism sector today. It is worthy of notice that the leaders of two states have a meeting in the littoral town of Turkmenbashi. Large-scale activities have been launched on the Caspian seashore to develop the Avaza national tourism zone – a world-class seaside resort where Russian companies could apply their expertise and advanced technologies.

Thus, a new meeting between the leaders of Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation is to offer new incentives to the intergovernmental dialogue based on age-old traditions of friendship and good neighbourliness that lay a firm foundation for full cooperation between our states and nations who share the common aspiration for wellbeing, prosperity and progress in the new historical epoch.