OREANDA-NEWS. October 14, 2010. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received Co-Chair of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council Ronald Nash, who had arrived in the Turkmen capital leading the high-level business delegation.

Thanking the Turkmen leader for the opportunity of a personal meeting, Mr. Ronald Nash conveyed the best wishes of His Highness Prince Andrew, who had been to Ashgabat several times, to the President of Turkmenistan. Noting that his country was keenly interested in expanding cooperation with Turkmenistan that the United Kingdom viewed as a very promising and trustworthy business partner, the guest said that this was illustrated by the business delegation, which had arrived in Ashgabat to participate in the first meeting of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council. It included top managers of such world-renowned companies as Shell, Gaffney, Cline & Associates, De La Rue, Rolls-Royce, WYG International, Worley Parsons, BSP International Foundation Ltd., British Petroleum, JCB and others.

Greeting the guest, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that in its turn Turkmenistan intended to develop large-scale cooperation with the United Kingdom, which was one of the long-term strategic partners of our country, on a constructive and mutually advantageous basis. Reaffirming that Turkmenistan, which stepped up efforts to reform the national economy and integrate into the world economic system, adopt scientific and technological advances and know-how, was interested in developing international cooperation, the President emphasized that in this regard paramount attention was given to the enhancement of contacts with world’s leading, in particular British, companies, with whom a substantial experience of collaboration had been accumulated.

During the meeting the President and his guest exchanged views on key aspects of bilateral partnership in the context of the agenda of the meeting of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council focusing on a wide range of issues regarding further intensification of effective collaboration.

Emphasizing that the favourable opportunities to expand cooperation in the economic, trade and investment and other priority sectors were opened up, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Mr. Ronald Nash underscored the importance of establishing close contacts in the high technologies sector, which played a critical role in boosting economic progress.

A focus of the talks was Turkmen-British partnership in the fuel and energy sector. The Turkmen leader said that ranking among world’s energy producers and implementing the strategy for fundamentally modernizing production infrastructure of the oil and gas industry and diversifying its energy export routes to world markets, Turkmenistan had the profound potential and necessary resources to launch new large-scale projects in this field and stood ready to expand cooperation with foreign, including European, partners.

Expressing support for Turkmenistan’s energy policy, the guest underscored the relevance of the initiatives on global energy security put forward by the Turkmen leader at the session of the UN General Assembly. In this case, Mr. Ronald Nash focused on the willingness of leading British companies to expand on the promising and dynamically developing Turkmen market and collaborate in implementing new joint projects.

In conclusion the Turkmen leader wished the successful and fruitful work to participants of the first meeting of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council that was to be an effective instrument for intensifying mutually advantageous cooperation. The Turkmen leader supported the idea of holding meetings of the Council each six months in Ashgabat and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Upon concluding the meeting the President and his guest expressed belief that partnership between the two countries meeting modern realities and mutual interests would be developed further.

UK Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Turkmenistan Keith Rennie Allan attended the meeting.