On June 16-17, Ashgabat hosted a visit of EUSR for Central Asia Peter Burian as part of his farewell tour around Central Asian region. During his official stay in Ashgabat, EUSR was accompanied by the EU Ambassador to Turkmenistan Diego Ruiz Alonso.
During the meeting with Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, the Turkmen side has expressed gratitude to the EUSR Peter Burian for his personal input into the development of cooperation between Turkmenistan and the European Union. An exchange of views took place in regard to the EU Strategy for Central Asia. One of the main topics of discussion was cooperation on the energy transition in the context of the fighting against the climate change, considering that Turkmenistan is a signatory country to the Paris agreement. FM Meredov positively referred to the bilateral and regional projects funded by the EU in Turkmenistan.
During the meeting with the Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Chairman of the Supreme Control Chamber of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, it was underlined that Turkmenistan intends to further expand cooperation with the European Union on all sectors of mutual interest: security, energy, transport, nature protection, digitalization, green sustainable economic development, strengthening of the private sector, WTO accession, and rural and agricultural development.
During the second day of his visit, EUSR Burian and EU Ambassador Alonso met the Chairman of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan Dovran Hudayberdiyev discussing bilateral cooperation on the development of the SMEs and training of the entrepreneurs, possibilities of trade facilitation on the regional level and cooperation with the leading EU companies.