During the working meeting with President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan R.Meredov has reported on the results of visits of the government delegation to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of India, which took place on December 18-20 this year.
Proceeding from the tasks set by the Leader of the State on the further development of interaction with partner countries, in accordance with the principles of foreign policy strategy based on the status of permanent neutrality, Turkmenistan is actively cooperating with Pakistan and India both bilaterally and within international and regional organizations.
On the instructions of the Head of State, following the online meeting, a briefing was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. The briefing was attended by the heads and employees of the Foreign Ministry and the heads of the diplomatic missions of Turkmenistan accredited abroad.
In his statement, the head of the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan noted the results of the delegation’s participation in the work of the regular third meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the India-Central Asia Dialogue in New Delhi. Within the framework of the Dialogue, the prospects for the development of the organizational structure of the Dialogue, as well as issues of expanding trade and economic cooperation between the countries were considered.
With regard to opportunities for further improving the functioning of the Dialogue, Turkmenistan made a number of specific proposals aimed at creating a solid institutional framework for a new format of political interaction between the Central Asian countries and India.
The implementation of Turkmenistan’s initiatives is important in the context of the implementation of projects that integrate the energy, transport and communication systems of Central and South Asia, in particular, the transnational gas pipeline Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, the transport corridor Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman.
The Minister noted that, based on the results of the Dialogue, a Joint Statement was adopted, in which special attention was paid to the Ashgabat agreement on the creation of international transport and transit corridors, designed to strengthen the links of Central Asian countries with India.
Also during the Dialogue, the need to implement in practice the concrete proposals made at the International Conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development”, held in Ashgabat on December 11 this year, was emphasized. In this regard, the importance of the initiative of the President of Turkmenistan on the formation of a new philosophy of modern international relations, called “Dialogue – a guarantee of peace” was emphasized.
All these provisions are reflected in the Joint Statement of the India-Central Asia- Dialogue.
During a briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, the results of the talks between the head of the government delegation of Turkmenistan with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Minister of External Affairs of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar were presented.
Speaking about the results of the visit to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, R.Meredov noted that the delegation of Turkmenistan took part in Islamabad in an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. During the meeting, it was noted that on the initiative of the President of Turkmenistan, a number of social facilities – schools, medical centers and mosques – have been built in Afghanistan in recent years. Humanitarian cargoes of oil products, foodstuffs and children’s clothes are sent to Afghanistan on a regular basis. One of such humanitarian actions in Afghanistan was organized on December 14 this year.
The final Resolution of the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of OIC member states, on Turkmenistan’s initiative, included provisions on the need to continue economic cooperation to improve the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and implementation in this regard, of major energy, transport and communications projects, such as the TAPI gas pipeline, the “Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan” power transmission line, which creates new opportunities for improving the social well-being of the Afghan people.
This document also emphasizes the importance of the 15th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization held in Ashgabat on November 28, 2021, and the “Ashgabat Consensus for Action” adopted on its results for solving the humanitarian problems of Afghanistan.
The briefing also highlighted the results of the constructive talks held during the visit of Turkmenistan’s delegation to Pakistan with President of the country Arif Alvi and Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi.