The opening of two major events in Istanbul at once — the Turkmenistan–Türkiye Trade Exhibition and the International Food Industry and Technology Exhibition F Istanbul — marked an important stage in the development of Turkish-Turkmen economic ties.
The opening ceremony was attended by Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, who emphasized the symbolism of the simultaneous holding of these exhibitions and the high activity of the Turkmen delegation, Anadolu agency reports.
According to the minister, Turkmenistan was an honorary country at F Istanbul, and business meetings in the B2B format were held within the framework of both forums, contributing to the expansion of partnership relations.
Bolat focused on the rapid growth of bilateral trade between the two countries.
Last year, our mutual trade exceeded $ 2.2 billion with an increase of 8.35 %. I would like to say with pleasure that this year, Türkiye-Turkmenistan trade increased by 26.5 % in the first 6 months. These are very pleasing figures, and we will easily exceed $ 3 billion next year at this pace. We will continue to work hard for the annual target of $ 5 billion set by the Presidents of both countries”, the minister said.
In addition, the minister noted the large-scale participation of Turkish construction companies in Turkmenistan’s infrastructure projects: out of 12,600 international contracts worth $540 billion, 1,100 were implemented in Turkmenistan with a total volume of $54 billion in contracts.
Among the key achievements, Bolat highlighted progress in gas agreements.:
“This year, an important step was taken with regard to the natural gas agreement, which includes both the import of Turkmen gas from Turkmenistan through Iran under the swap agreement, as well as the delivery of Turkmen gas to the European market, and Turkmen gas will flow to Europe through Türkiye.”
The Minister announced that the Turkish Export Exhibition will be held in Ashgabat on 13-15 February 2026.