Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan continue to strengthen strategic partnership relations
Astana, May 27, 2024 – Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu held talks with Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, who arrived on an official visit to Astana.
During the talks, the foreign ministers discussed a wide range of issues of Kazakh-Turkmen cooperation, including the state and prospects of cooperation in the political, trade and economic, transit and transport, energy, cultural and humanitarian spheres.
The main focus is on the practical implementation of the agreements reached following the state visits of President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Ashgabat in October 2021 and President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov to Astana in October 2022, as well as the official visit of the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Ashgabat in October last year.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan stressed that thanks to the political will of the heads of state, relations between the countries have been brought to a qualitatively new level in recent years.
Special attention was paid to the further expansion of trade and economic cooperation. Over the past five years, the volume of mutual trade between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan has increased almost 4 times. In 2023, this indicator showed an increase of 28% and reached 563 million US dollars.
"In the first quarter of this year, the volume of trade between the two countries exceeded $ 100 million. Positive trends inspire great confidence in the fulfillment of the task of the heads of state to increase our mutual trade to $ 1 billion in the near future," M.Nurtleu said.
The parties highly appreciated the cooperation in the transit and transport sector. A successful example of Kazakh-Turkmen cooperation is the Kazakhstan–Turkmenistan–Iran railway, the potential of which is increasing every year thanks to the measures taken. Last year, the volume of traffic between the countries increased by 20% and amounted to 1.3 million tons.
The Ministers noted the significant potential for cooperation in the energy sector, including the prospects for the implementation of joint projects. They expressed their readiness to contribute to the development of fruitful cooperation in this area.
"Turkmenistan, for its part, supports Kazakhstan in the implementation of all its initiatives and recommendations at the global and regional levels. I am confident that our talks today will contribute to the further development of cooperation between Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan," R. Meredov said.
The foreign ministers stressed the substantial agenda of cultural and humanitarian cooperation. In accordance with the instructions of the heads of state, Days of Culture of Turkmenistan will be held in Astana this year, and Days of Culture of Kazakhstan will be held in Ashgabat, within the framework of which it is planned to perform creative teams and unveil monuments to outstanding poets of the two countries – Makhtumkuli Fragi and Abai Kunanbayev. In this context, the events to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Turkmen classic M.Fragi were positively noted.
During the meeting, the ministers "checked the clock" on topical aspects of the regional and international agenda, reaffirmed their commitment to continue to work closely within multilateral structures, as well as to continue to provide mutual support in promoting the initiatives of the two states.
The sides stressed the importance of deepening regional cooperation, especially the need to complete the procedure for signing the five-party Treaty on Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation for the Development of Central Asia in the 21st century.