Turkmen president begins first official visit to Bulgaria.

26/8 Tass 18

ASHGABAT, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - Turkmen President Gurbanguly
Berdymukhammedov begins his first official visit to Bulgaria on Wednesday.

The high-level talks will focus on concrete areas of cooperation
taking into account the richest resource and economic potential the two
countries have, the Turkmen government's press service said.
At a recent meeting Berdymukhammedov described Bulgaria as "a
promising partner, especially taking into account the two countries'
geographical location and the creation of new transport routes between
Asia and Europe."
He underlined that Turkmenistan was interested in "Bulgaria's
experience in the tourism sector - one of the Turkmen state policy's
priorities."
The Turkmen-Bulgarian relations were given a fresh impetus last
December during Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov's first visit to
Ashgabat. Then he expressed Bulgaria's readiness "to annually buy around 2
billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas." Bulgaria's interest in Turkmen gas
supplies is also proved by Bulgargas' membership of the consortium to lay
the Nabucco gas pipeline.
In December 2008 the two countries signed several important documents,
including a memorandum of understanding in energy cooperation and an
intergovernmental agreement on economic cooperation.
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