OREANDA-NEWS. January 19, 2011. The second meeting of the Turkmen-German working group took place in the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. The meeting agenda focused on the approaches to enhancing bilateral relations.

The high-level delegation led by Vice Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan R. Meredov had arrived in the German capital to participate in the meeting. The working group is co-chaired by Karl-Ernst Brauner, Vice Minister of Economics and Technology, Director General for External Economic Policy at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

In their opening remarks, the Co-chairmen of the working group focused on the mutual willingness of the two countries to enhance Turkmen-German cooperation based equality and mutual benefit in the bilateral format and within leading international structures, including the European Union and the United Nations. Focusing n the high dynamics of intergovernmental relationships in the modern period, the meeting participants put emphasis on the need to strengthen cooperation in a wide spectrum of fields, including the trade and economic, fuel and energy, transport and communication, scientific and education, agricultural, health, tourism and environmental sectors.

Noting that the policy of progressive reforms pursued by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov had led to growing interest of the business circles of Europe and the world in the Turkmen state, the German sides expressed the intention of leading German companies to expand on the very promising Turkmen market, where the favourable investment climate had been created for foreign business.

A focus of the discussion was the progress in implementing the agreements reached during the first meeting of the Turkmen-German working group in Ashgabat in May, 2009.

The possibilities for diversification of bilateral cooperation in the fuel and energy sector were discussed during the Turkmen-German Energy Symposium, which was held in the framework of the second meeting of the Turkmen-German working group.