Russian, Turkmen presidents to discuss key issues of bilateral cooperation

MOSCOW, October 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will come to Turkmenistan on an official visit on Monday at the invitation of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the Kremlin press service reported. "The negotiations will focus on the key issues of developing bilateral cooperation in the political, trade and economic, science and educational, and cultural and humanitarian spheres, as well as on the current regional problems," the Kremlin press service said in its report. "Russian-Turkmen documents are planned to be signed after the negotiations." Highest-level contacts Last time Putin visit Turkmenistan in December 2012, and this country’s president came to Russia on a working visit last November. This year, the leaders talked three times over the phone. Congratulating Berdimuhamedow on his victory at the February 2017 presidential election, the Russian leader highly valued his counterpart’s contribution to development of friendly ties between the two countries and expressed confidence in further constructive dialogue between Moscow and Ashgabat. This past June Putin signed an order to award Berdimuhamedow, who had celebrated his 60th birthday at the time, with Alexander Nevsky Order "for great personal contribution to strengthening of relations of strategic partnership between the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, as well as to provision of stability and security in the Central Asian region." Russian-Turkmen relations In the run-up to Putin’s visit to Ashgabat, the Russian government approved draft agreements between Russia and Turkmenistan on development of cooperation in tourism and agriculture. Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko, who visited Turkmenistan in mid-September, said the parties were preparing a whole range of interstate, intergovernmental and interagency agreements ahead of the Russian president’s visit in order to galvanize development of bilateral ties. Putin’s visit to Turkmenistan "will have great importance for further extension of relations between our nations and states," the speaker said. Russia and Turkmenistan have signed more than 120 agreements and contracts in total, the basic of them being the Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation of April 23, 2002 (that replaced a similar document of 1992). Trade and economic cooperation between the two countries is based on the intergovernmental agreements on free trade of November 11, 1992, and on trade and economic cooperation of August 30, 2008. The intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation has been operating since February 2003.Diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkmenistan were established on April 8, 1992. Read more