OREANDA-NEWS. February 25, 2011. The Turkmenistan-European Union Committee held the 11th meeting in the conference hall of the President Hotel in Ashgabat. The forum agenda focused on the current state and the prospects for developing further fruitful partnership between our country and the EU under ongoing and future projects and programmes.

The members of the high-level delegation of the European Commission, who had arrived in the Turkmen capital, heads of the diplomatic missions and representative offices of EU members states accredited to Turkmenistan and Europa House participated in the forum. Turkmenistan as presented at the meeting by heads and leading specialists of ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy and Development, the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral resources, the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Nature Protection, the State Agency for Hydrocarbon Resources Management and Use under the President of Turkmenistan, the Turkmenhowayollary State National Service and the Turkmenenergotaslama Institute.

It is known strengthening of cooperation with the European Union is a critical aspect of the foreign policy strategy of the Turkmen state implemented under the leadership of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Partnership with EU member states at the present stage has been filled with a new content that is vividly illustrated by top level visits, which have become more frequent in recent years, exchanges of government delegations, the opening of Europa House in Ashgabat, the accreditation of Head of the Commission of the European Communities and implementation of joint projects under such well-known EU-funded programmes such as Tempus and Erasmus Mundus.

An important step to develop a constructive dialogue between Turkmenistan and the European Union was the official visit of President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso to Ashgabat this January, which gave a powerful impetus to intensify bilateral relations. Gunnar Wiegand, Head of the European Commission’s Unit for Relations with Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Director of the Commission’s Directorate-General for External Relations said that enhancing cooperation with Turkmenistan, which had the key positions in the Central Asian region was the a priority aspect of the EU’s regional strategy. Today, relations between the EU and Turkmenistan based on mutual benefit, respect for national interests and international norms and commitment to all obligations undertaken allow developing a fruitful dialogue and filling it with a new content and achieving further progress. In this context, Mr. Gunnar Wiegand said that European countries supported the foreign policy pursued by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and put emphasis on the importance of the Turkmen leader’s constructive international initiatives aimed at strengthening global peace, stability and security.

A lively exchange of views on the implementation of the Turkmenistan-EU partnership strategy that stipulated for closer collaboration in the political, economic, humanitarian and environmental spheres took place during the meeting. A focus of the meeting was cooperation in the fuel and energy sector. It was emphasized that the endeavours of the European community to intensify cooperation in this important sector were based on a growing energy demand in EU member states as well as the efforts of Turkmenistan, which had the profound energy potential, to promote the strategy initiated by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to diversify transit of Turkmen energy to world markets.

The trade and investment, education, transport and communication sector, private sector development, environmental protection and many other fields were identified as the priority areas of further partnerships. In particular, it was emphasized that the EU stood ready to offer new investment projects for construction of water infrastructure facilities and to implement projects in the ecological, energy and agricultural sectors. Also, emphasis was put on the importance of expanding cooperation in the legal sector in the context of the ongoing democratic reforms in Turkmenistan.

In conclusion the meeting participants evaluated highly the significance of this forum. They focused on the need to develop new joint projects and programmes and called for conducting joint meetings and forums on a regular basis that would contribute to updating the existing model of cooperation to meet modern realities and the goals of mutually advantageous equal partnership.