OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2010. President of Turkmenistan pays an official visit to the Republic of Belarus

Today, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has arrived in the Republic of Belarus on a two-day official visit.

The status of particular, significant importance is given initially to the first visit of the leader of the Turkmen state to the Republic of Belarus paid on the invitation of the Belarusian partners for notable intensification of traditional bilateral cooperation observed over the past years and expansion of collaboration between Turkmenistan and Belarus in the political, economic and cultural spheres.

The similar approaches and positions of the two countries to international political issues become fertile soil for constructive Turkmen-Belarusian cooperation at various levels. The intergovernmental dialogue was significantly fostered in 2007 – this year was marked with the establishment of a regular air service and the visits of the leaders and cabinet ministers of Belarus to Ashgabat.

Trade and economic contacts between two friendly countries gained positive dynamics in the following years that is illustrated by the official statistical figures and facts. According to the State Committee for Statistics of Turkmenistan, in 2009 the bilateral turnover of commodities made up over USD 74.172 million, or rose as high as USD 8.3 million as compared to 2008.

Undoubtedly, the recent top level meeting held during the official visit of President of the Republic of Belarus to Turkmenistan in June 2009 gave powerful impetus to develop full-scale cooperation successfully built today on the bilateral and multilateral basis – in the format of the international and regional organisations and institutions. The leaders of two countries Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Alexander Lukashenko reaffirmed the mutual willingness to intensify the political dialogue upon specifying the key vectors of further cooperation built on an equal and mutually advantageous basis.

Underscoring the existing profound potential of this cooperation the two leaders reiterated that the complementarity of the consistently growing economies of Turkmenistan and Belarus could and must be implemented in the interests of the brotherly peoples. The striking illustrations of the pragmatic approach to building business partnership are long-term deliveries of high-quality and reliable agricultural equipment and machines from Belarus that effectively operate in the soil and climatic conditions of Turkmenistan as well as the new joint project –construction of the ore-dressing and processing complex producing potash fertilizers in Lebap that was put into operation by the leaders of Turkmenistan and Belarus last summer.

The partners, who have the profound but not yet fully implemented potential of cooperation, attach particular importance to the work of the Intergovernmental Belarusian-Turkmen commission for economic cooperation that is to develop the most effective measures to build and steadily enhance partnership, which has proved its effectiveness and importance.

However, Turkmenistan and Belarus are united not only by trade and economic cooperation. They have the historical and cultural affinities formed over centuries that serve today, at the new historical stage as a reliable platform for intensifying the traditional dialogue.

The important bilateral documents to be signed during the visit are particularly aimed at bringing this dialogue to a qualitatively new level through expanding considerably traditional collaboration and creating the conditions conducive to successful implementation of all top level agreements.

Furthermore, it was reported that some days before the Turkmen leader’s official visit to the Republic of Belarus the intergovernmental Turkmen-Belarusian commission for economic cooperation held a working meeting that resulted in signing the Protocol and concluding the Framework Agreement for exploration of potassium deposit in Lebap between the Turkmenhimiya State Concern and the Belgorkhimprom Public Corporation Belarusian, and the Turkmen delegation held the meetings and talks at the ministries and departments of Belarus to discuss the further ways to intensify bilateral partnership on the priority fields.

It should be added that the very busy schedule is President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s two-day visit to Minsk includes the top level talks and the visits to the large-scale industrial enterprises and important social and cultural infrastructure facilities.