Friendly relations between Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation have demonstrated practical effectiveness. Recently, a large-scale Turkmen-Russian business forum which covered various economic and humanitarian spheres was held in Ashgabat. A solid package of bilateral documents was signed within the event.
In an interview to CentralAsia.news, economist, scientist, chairman of the Union of Economists of Turkmenistan, representative of the Coordinating Council of the International Union of Economists Yuri Aronsky summed up some of the results of the international forum.
Fundamental prerequisites
The concept of the current drive was laid on June 10, 2022. President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov met with the head of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Turkmen politician visited Russia at Putin’s invitation. This was the first official foreign visit of Serdar Berdimuhamedov as head of state.
On the sidelines of the high meeting, a set of issues for the development of further bilateral cooperation in the political, trade, economic and humanitarian spheres, as well as regional and international topics were considered.
As a result of the official visit of Serdar Berdimuhamedov to Moscow, a large package of documents was signed. They are aimed at regulating new stages of the Turkmen-Russian strategic partnership.
These are the Declaration on deepening the strategic partnership, the Agreement between the government of Turkmenistan and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in trade, economic, transport, construction, scientific, educational, sports and a number of other areas. At the same time the countries planned to expand partnership in the field of ensuring international information security.
Trade continues to grow
On January 19–20, 2023, Ashgabat brought together representatives of two states within a large Turkmen-Russian business forum. High-level negotiations, bilateral meetings were held, a number of documents were signed.
In particular, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin, President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and other high-level officials took part in the talks from the Russian side.
In recent years, cooperation between the two countries has been successfully developing in almost all areas, and the agreements reached earlier at the highest level are strictly implemented. For the first time, a year ago, the trade turnover between the countries crossed the bar of a billion dollars. It continues to grow steadily. Through the intensification of cooperation the growth was achieved in the oil and gas sector, the agro-industrial complex, transport and communications, and other industries.
To date, more than 20 investment projects worth about $3.5 billion are being implemented in Turkmenistan with Russian participation. New projects in transport, construction, automotive and shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, geological exploration, the oil and gas industry are developed.
Fruitful meetings in Ashgabat
As a result of meetings within the framework of the business forum, more than 50 documents and agreements for a total amount of over 2 billion US dollars were signed. These are contracts for export-import operations, cooperation in the service sector, agreements and memorandums of understanding aimed at achieving concrete results and designed to contribute to the optimal implementation of the existing impressive potential of bilateral partnership.
Turkmenistan strengthens direct ties with individual Russian regions in the trade, economic, scientific, technical and other fields.
— In general, about 60 Russian subjects are actively interacting with Turkmenistan. St. Petersburg maintains close contacts with Ashgabat, and the Republic of Tatarstan demonstrates consistently high dynamics of cooperation. Astrakhan region has a lot of joint plans and projects with Turkmenistan, — Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin said.
Joint work for the common good
Summing up the results of the business forum, we can say with confidence that the friendly countries have serious plans to further intensify the comprehensive partnership. These plans found concrete ways of implementation during the business forum, and the potential for the development of bilateral cooperation is far from being exhausted.
According to both sides, it will be developed in the future in various areas of the economy in the name of the common good. Within the joint work Russia and Turkmenistan reach a fundamentally new qualitative level of collaboration in the widest range of areas.
