OREANDA-NEWS. February 12, 2009. The Turkmen-Armenian intergovernmental commission for economic development consisting of the high-ranking officials and government officials of the leading sectoral ministries and departments of Turkmenistan and Armenia held the first meeting in Ashgabat.

The commission was co-chaired by Vice Premier of Turkmenistan H. Saparlyev and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia A. Movsisian.

Opening the meeting the heads of the delegations put emphasis on mutual interest in diversifying and intensifying mutually advantageous cooperation and expressed belief that the commission would create powerful incentives to further traditional partnership between Turkmenistan and Republic of Armenia. It was noted that the important bilateral documents had laid the solid foundation for the maintaining the fruitful dialogue which had been brought today up to a higher and filled with a new concrete content. 
The agenda of the first day of the meeting included a wide range of the issues of bilateral collaboration prioritizing such fields as trade and economy, chemical industry, transport and communication, agriculture.

Exchanging views on the further trends in fuel and energy partnership the hosts invited the Armenian partners to take part in the international conference Reliable and Stable Transit of Energy and Its Role in Ensuring Sustainable Development and International Cooperation which would be held in Ashgabat this April. The guests accepted the invitation with great enthusiasm.

A focus of the talks was humanitarian cooperation particularly in the spheres of education, science and healthcare. Emphasis was put on the importance of enhancing and expanding cultural contacts as well through participating in international festivals and other cultural forums organized in Turkmenistan and Armenia. The partners unanimously called for establishing effective contacts in the sphere of sport and tourism as the priorities of national development.

The aspects of the draft Agreement between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the Republic of Armenia on the Turkmen-Armenian intergovernmental commission for economic development were touched upon during the meeting held in the businesslike and constructive atmosphere

On behalf of the Armenian delegation Minister Armen Movsisian expressed sincere gratitude to the President and the Government of Turkmenistan for the heartfelt welcome extended in the Turkmen land and emphasized that the establishment of the commission vividly illustrated the countries’ intention to develop full-scale partnership in the interests of two friendly peoples.