OREANDA-NEWS. May 07, 2010. There is a small locality Guvlymayak on the Caspian coast. Guvly means a swan in Turkmen. Lots of these wonderful birds inhabited this region a long time ago. They flied away after people had come there but the name of the locality remained. It was there where renewable reserves of high quality salt were discovered. In early XX century the Guvlyduz complex was built there.

Today, the complex has received a new life. State-of-the-art equipment and machines was supplied to the enterprises in the past two or three years that allow steadily raising the volume of common salt production and processing steadily increase.

A demand for Turkmen salt has considerably increased since the universal iodization programme was launched and the international certificate recognizing the high quality and healing properties of products was awarded to the Guvlyduz complex.

Iodinated salt is used to treat iodine deficiency diseases. By supplying it to the domestic and foreign markets Turkmenistan considerably contributes to global efforts to eliminate these diseases all over the world.

By mid April the complex has extracted 75,706 tons of salt from the Guvly Lake that is 35.6% higher than that extracted in the same period of 2009. 67,280 tons of grain fraction have been churned out that is as many as 18,000 tons as compared to the same period of 2009. The processing plants produced 10,964 tons of packed common salt of the first and high grade. Of them, over 7,000 tons of iodinated salt fine-ground and coarse-ground salt was provided to the population free of charge.

The salt deposit is located several kilometres far from the complex. This deposit is developed by the open-pit method with the help of a tracked milling combine with the capacity of 1,500 tons per day. The Guvly Lake is the natural saltcellar with renewable salt reserves.

The Turkmen ‘salt river’ starts from the salt-field. In spite of the local picturesque landscape of the riverhead and the healthy air, it is a big lake 55 km long and 3,500 metres wide with highly mineralized brine and salt hardpans deposited at a depth of three metres – the work in the salt field requires strong character and can be compared to labour heroism.

From mid autumn to spring the unique basin is covered with brine – a strong solution of salt and water. the salty solid surface of the lake disappear under ‘water’ and its barchan banks move part and stretch far into the horizon. On the ultramarine surface salt combines look like scoop shovels with hopper-car moored to them, and heavy haulers that deliver fuels and lubricants and building materials to the salt-field resemble rescue tugs cutting the lake surface with their bunt noses.

Each day up to 1,000 tons of salt are delivered from the salt-field to the storehouses of the Guvlyduz complex by train.
OREANDA-NEWS. May 06, 2010. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, met on May 5 with the League of Arab States (LAS) member countries’ ambassadors accredited to Moscow and with the head of the LAS representation office in Moscow.

A thorough exchange of views took place on topical issues of the international and regional agenda. Particular attention was devoted to the state of affairs in the Middle Eastern region. The heads of the Arab diplomatic missions commended the strenuous efforts of Russia to promote a just and comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and other hotbeds of tension in the Near and Middle East.

When discussing the possibilities of reviving the Middle East peace process, participants noted the shared principled positions of Russia and the LAS in support of efforts to launch and advance Palestinian- Israeli talks on a universally recognized international legal basis, in accordance with the line agreed to at the Ministerial Quartet Meeting held in Moscow on March 19.

In light of the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that has opened in New York, Foreign Minister Lavrov gave a detailed explanation of Russia’s approaches to dialogue on the implementation of the resolution of the 1995 NPT Review Conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.

Upon interlocutors’ request the Minister set out our vision of how the situation around Iran’s nuclear program (INP) is evolving. Emphasis was placed on the fact that international action in this matter should proceed from the imperative of maintaining and expanding cooperation by Iran with the IAEA, as well as from the necessity to continue political dialogue with Tehran. It was generally felt that there is no alternative but to solve the INP problem by politico-diplomatic methods and avoid regionally disastrous military options.

In relation to the current tensions around Iran, the increased urgency of the concept put forward by Russia in 2007 for providing security in the Persian Gulf on a collective basis with the participation of all regional and other interested parties was noted.

Participants stressed their mutual interest in further intensifying cooperation between Russia and the LAS member states in order to strengthen peace, security and stability and resolve the burning problems of the Middle East and North Africa. Much of the discussion included an exchange of views on ways to further enhance the commercial, economic, investment, scientific, technological, humanitarian and cultural cooperation. The Arab ambassadors emphasized the desire of their countries to fully utilize the existing potential for rapid progress in all these areas.

In this context, the meeting noted the importance of the Memorandum signed in December 2009 establishing a Russian-Arab Forum and of consultations on the formation of a Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council strategic dialogue system, designed to establish long-term partnership arrangements in different areas.