OREANDA-NEWS. December 18, 2009. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov arrived on an official visit to Japan. This is the first visit of the leader of the Turkmen state to the friendly country that makes this event special in the context of the endeavours to intensify intergovernmental relations in the new historical epoch.

The brilliant opportunities, without exaggeration, are opened up today to enhance mutually advantageous bilateral cooperation. Dynamically developing Turkmenistan aims at full-scale modernization and diversification of the national economy, including establishment of new industries, through widely adopting innovations and advanced technologies. Japan – a world-renowned leader in this field is interested in expanding on the promising Turkmen market and enhancing business contacts in every possible way. Thus, the requisites for fruitfully concerting efforts are being created.

The President’s plane landed at the Haneda International Airport in the Japanese capital. The high-ranking officials of the Parliament, the Service of State Protocol, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and other official persons heartily greeted the Turkmen leader at the airport.

From the airport the President’s cortege headed for the Akasaka Palace – the residence of the honorary Turkmen guest.

In the afternoon President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov arrived to the office of the head of the Japanese Government, where Prime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama heartily welcomed the distinguished guest.

In the Big Hall the Prime Minister of Japan and the President of Turkmenistan had a photograph taken against the background of the national flags of two countries. Then the bilateral talks with the participation of the government delegations of Turkmenistan and Japan were held.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed gratitude to his honorary guest for accepting the invitation to pay an official visit to Japan noting that the representative membership of the Turkmen delegation testified to Turkmenistan’s serious intention to bring bilateral relations up to a qualitatively new level. Emphasizing that this visit was viewed in Japan as an important step to expand the traditionally friendly intergovernmental dialogue, the head of the Japanese Government thanked the Turkmen leader for the constructive approach to developing cooperation.

Touching upon the prospects of this cooperation, Yukio Hatoyama highlighted three aspects. The Prime Minister of Japan said that in recent years the mutual political dialogue had been developed through intensifying diplomatic contacts, opening the Embassy of Japan in Turkmenistan, cooperating within the framework of the authoritative international organisations, particularly the UN, to address global challenges where the partners demonstrated the proximity and similarity in views.

Touching upon the economic aspect of cooperation the Prime Minister of Japan illustrated its progressive dynamics with an increased frequency of the mutual visits of delegations at various levels in recent years aimed at expanding effective partnership. In this regard, Yukio Hatoyama characterized the energy sector, transport and telecommunications, water industry as the promising fields of cooperation. In particular, the Japanese partners were drafting the proposals for reconstruction of the international sea port in Turkmenbashi aiming to turn in an ultra-modern sea port. Furthermore, the Japanese partners stood ready to share the innovations and technologies in seawater desalination.

The Prime Minister of Japan spotlighted the development of cultural and humanitarian contacts as the third important aspect of cooperation. A striking example of the fruitful dialogue in this field was partnership between Turkmenistan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that train specialists in various fields such as banking, agriculture, water industry, management.

Expressing satisfaction with the favourable development of friendly relations between Turkmenistan and Japan, Yukio Hatoyama emphasized that the Turkmen leader’s visit to Japan was an important step to expand friendly relations and bring them up to a higher level.

Expressing sincere gratitude to the Prime Minister for inviting to visit Japan, extending the heartfelt welcome and creating the conditions conducive to the effective work of the Turkmen delegation, the President underlined the importance of these talks providing an opportunity to discuss a broad range of the aspects of bilateral relations as well as global and regional issues. Evaluating highly the constructive atmosphere of the meeting Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that this evidenced the understanding between the partners on an estimation of the potential of Turkmen-Japanese partnership as well as collaboration on the important issues of an international agenda.

The top-level visit of the Turkmen delegation to Japan became the first one in the history of the intergovernmental relations, the Turkmen leader emphasized, and therefore it was a crucial stage of bilateral cooperation enabling to give it a new quality and content.

Touching upon Turkmen-Japanese partnership on a world arena, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted with satisfaction that the partners shared the principles and approaches to urgent challenges of the modern world such as enhancement of stability and security in the world and on the Asian continent. In this context the Turkmen leader reaffirmed Turkmenistan’s readiness to continue close cooperation in the bilateral format and in the framework of the large international organisations, particularly the United Nations.

Noting that today global energy security was the most important component of stability and sustainability of the system of international political and economic relations, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that being based on a responsible and realistic approach, he need to ensure the multilateral balance of interests in the world energy arena the views of the two countries on the ways to achieve this goal were similar in many respects. The Turkmen leader said that the fact that Japan had supported Turkmenistan’s initiative to launch a wide international dialogue on the establishment of the reliable mechanisms for energy infrastructure and coauthored the relevant resolution of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a year ago was quite illustrative. In this regard the Turkmen leader expressed gratitude to the Japanese partners.

Another important theme that the talks should focus on, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov continued, was enhancement of confidence-building measures in the Asian region, conflict prevention, establishment of an enabling political and legal environment for consistent development of bilateral ties. In this context, the observance of the universally recognized norms and bans on nuclear weapons production and testing ranked among the urgent global challenges. The President said that this was a matter of principle for Turkmenistan that regarded facilitation of the disarmament processes as a priority of its foreign policy, emphasizing that the Turkmen state evaluated highly Japan’s position and its contribution to disarmament processes at the global and regional levels. In this regard on behalf of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited Japan to attend the International Conference on Disarmament in Central Asia and the Caspian Basin, which would be held in Ashgabat in the first half of 2010.

Focusing on the current state and further ways to enhance trade and economic cooperation between two countries, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that 23 investment projects worth about USD 780 million and 27 billion Japanese yen with the participation of the Japanese capital had been and were implemented in Turkmenistan. The Japanese companies operated in such sectors as oil and gas and water industries, transport and communications, construction, health care. As an illustrative example of this Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov set Japan’s active collaboration in the projects on technology modernization of Turkmenistan’s fuel and energy sector and procurement of state-of-the-art road construction and earth-moving equipment that had proved their effectiveness on the construction sites throughout Turkmenistan by the companies Itochu and Komatsu. Turkmenistan welcomed the Japanese partners’ contribution to developing Turkmen economy and intended to enhance this effective partnership, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized appreciating highly the role of the Turkmen-Japanese and Japanese-Turkmen committees on economic cooperation in this process.

The President of Turkmenistan stated that Japan and Turkmenistan had every requisite to enhance and expand business contacts particularly in the spheres of investments and develop new promising trends in joint activity. This was deemed particularly topical for the ongoing large-scale projects such as construction of the Turkmen section of the North-South transcontinental railway, modernization of the seaport in Turkmenbashi town. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that Turkmenistan would welcome the participation of Japanese companies in these projects. Undoubtedly, the opportunities existing in oil production, oil refining and petrochemical industry should be employed.

The experience of the Land of the Rising Sun in developing information and communications technologies that was renowned all over the world would be quite useful for dynamically developing Turkmenistan. In this context Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov suggested considering a possibility of opening the Japanese information centre for high technologies in Turkmenistan. The President emphasized that the country stood ready to create the conditions conducive to the successful activity of this centre.

Turkmenistan was also interested in Japan’s experience in developing tourism infrastructure. The participation of Japanese companies in developing tourism business in Turkmenistan, in particular the project of Avaza national tourism zone on the Caspian seashore was deemed quite promising.

The development of humanitarian cooperation, including the intensification of cooperation in the spheres of science, education and culture was regarded as of primary importance. The interest in Japanese history and art was traditionally high In Turkmenistan. Reminding that in 2007 the Department of the Japanese Language had been opened at D. Azadi Turkmen National Institute of World Languages, at which the teachers and linguists of Japan delivered lectures, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov called for fostering cooperation on personnel training and scientific research between the educational institutions of Turkmenistan and Japan.

Noting that it would be interesting for the Japanese people to learn more about the rich and unique culture of Turkmenistan the President put forward the proposal to hold the Days of Turkmen Culture in Japan and the Days of Japanese Culture in Turkmenistan in 2010-2011.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressed gratitude Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama for inviting the delegation of the Mejlis of Turkmenistan to visit Japan to establish direct inter-parliamentary ties and exchange experiences. This visit would take place in early 2010 and be a new step to deepen bilateral relations.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that the visit of the Turkmen official delegation to Japan was aimed at intensifying bilateral cooperation and achieving concrete results. In this regard the Turkmen leader expressed belief that this meeting illustrated the mutual commitment to bring Turkmen-Japanese partnership at a new level and addressed the wishes of peace and wellbeing to the friendly Japanese people. The Turkmen leader also thanked the leadership and the Prime Minister of Japan personally for the constructive dialogue as well as the willingness to cement friendship and cooperation between two countries.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited the Prime Minister of Japan to visit Turkmenistan. The invitation was accepted with gratitude. The dates of the visit would be adjusted through diplomatic channels.

Upon concluding the talks the ceremony of signing the bilateral documents took place in the South Hall.

To the applause of those present President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama put their signatures signed to the Joint Communique on the further development of friendship, partnership and cooperation between Turkmenistan and Japan.

The Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan was signed.

It should be noted that the package of the documents testifying to the high effectiveness of the President’s official visit to Japan included the framework agreements and the memoranda on bilateral cooperation in the priority sectors and the related protocol signed upon concluding the 8th joint meeting of the Turkmen-Japanese and Japanese-Turkmen committees on economic cooperation.

Then the President of Turkmenistan and the Prime Minister of Japan gave the press conference.

Addressing the journalists Yukio Hatoyama focused on the high effectiveness of the talks with the President of Turkmenistan that had been held within the framework of the Turkmen leader’s official visit to Japan – the first one in the history of bilateral relations. The Prime Minister said that it was the very constructive meeting that had lasted longer than planned.

Touching upon the Turkmen-Japanese economic relations Yukio Hatoyama said that the sides had discussed the ways to strengthen further cooperation between two countries. The Japanese Prime Minister said that the projects launched in various fields in Turkmenistan that President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov had told about and offered Japanese partner to collaborate in were of great interest.

The Prime Minister of Japan said that these were the interesting and constructive concrete proposals that deserved thorough consideration. Yukio Hatoyama put emphasis on a considerably increased interest on the Japanese business circles in expanding business cooperation with Turkmenistan that was reflected in the final documents of the 8th joint meeting of the Turkmen-Japanese and Japanese-Turkmen economic cooperation committees.

The Japanese Prime Minister thanked the Turkmen leader for the initiatives to foster humanitarian cooperation. The head of the Japanese Government noted that President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov had put forward a number of the remarkable proposals such as the Days of Japanese Culture in Turkmenistan and the Days of Turkmen Culture in Japan. Yukio Hatoyama said that he knew that the Department of the Japanese Language had been opened at D. Azadi Turkmen National Institute of World Languages on the initiative of the Turkmen leader, and that the interest in Japan and Japanese language in Turkmenistan was high and continued to increase.

Stating that the sides had reached an agreement on further enhancement of cooperation on a world arena, the Japanese Prime Minister said that Turkmenistan had the important geopolitical location and played an important role in maintaining stability in the region. In this regard, Yukio Hatoyama emphasized that both countries attached great importance to cooperation with the international organisations, particularly the UN. In this regard, the Prime Minister reiterated Japan’s readiness to continue the joint work to address global threats such as international terrorism, illicit rug trafficking as well as further strengthen the dialogue on disarmament, the environmental problems, etc within the UN.

Expressing belief that the Turkmen-Japanese relations would be developed further in the whole spectrum, Yukio Hatoyama expressed the best wishes to the friendly people of Turkmenistan.

In his turn, the President of Turkmenistan expressed sincere gratitude to the Prime Minister and the leadership of Japan for the constructive talks that had been held in the atmosphere of mutual confidence and understanding intrinsic of Turkmen-Japanese intergovernmental relationships. Putting emphasis on the high effectiveness of the meeting that had demonstrated the similarity of the principles and approaches to the major issues of international politics, the Turkmen leader noted that it had spotlighted the mutual willingness of Turkmenistan and Japan to contribute to enhancing peace and stability and establishing the climate of mutual confidence and understanding in Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. In this regard, particular attention had been paid to enhancing the confidence-building measures in Asia, preventing conflicts, ensuring the firm political and legal guarantees of the consistent development of relationships among the nations in compliance with international law norms and the UN resolutions.

Stressing that through enhancing cooperation two countries contributed to achieving the goals of global peace, stability and security, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov reaffirmed the mutual readiness to develop cooperation to achieve these goals in the bilateral format as well as the framework of the UN and other authoritative international organisations. In this context the sides called for continuing the exchange of the visits of government delegations at various levels as well as views on the aspects of bilateral and multilateral relations. The President of Turkmenistan informed that the sides had agreed to further concert efforts to respond new threats and challenges to ensure international security such as terrorism, extremism, transnational crime and illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs.

The Turkmen leader stated that the talks had highlighted the mutual readiness to promote and foster the development of all forms of trade and economic and investment cooperation and facilitate cooperation to implement large-scale transport, communications, construction, tourism projects in Turkmenistan. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov focused on the important role of the Turkmen-Japanese and Japanese-Turkmen committees on economic cooperation that had held the regular meetings in the framework of the visit of the Turkmen official delegation to Japan. The President said that Turkmenistan was interested in continuing humanitarian cooperation and enhancing contacts in the sphere of culture, science and education through conducting joint activities as well.

Evaluating highly the results of the talks, the President of Turkmenistan focused on the importance of the meeting as a crucial stage of bilateral cooperation that had given it a new quality and content meeting the real potential of the countries as well as long-term interests of the peoples of Turkmenistan and Japan.

The Prime Minister of Japan gave an official dinner in honour of the honorary Turkmen guest. The President of Turkmenistan and the Prime Minister of Japan exchanged the speeches at the reception.