President Aliyev: Azerbaijan offers transit opportunities for Turkmenistan's energy resources

Turkmen-Azerbaijani relation received a new impetus due to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's official visit to Ashgabat on November 21.

Speaking at an expanded meeting, Ilham Aliyev underlined that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with Turkmenistan.

“It is not accidental that we work in international organizations and support each other. We strengthen the cooperation potential in the bilateral plan, and all this leads to stability, and strengthens regional security,” he stated.

President Aliyev noted that today regional security issues are of particular importance.

“We see that conflicts, bloody events are taking place in different corners of the world, processes that shake the foundations of states are going on. Therefore, I think that in such a complicated situation, both Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have a high level of development, stability, and these are once again pointing to the correctness of the way our countries have gone,” he said.

President Aliyev also said that a great job can be done to increase the turnover.

“Both Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have great natural resources. Certainly, energy cooperation between our countries is natural. Azerbaijan offers transit opportunities for Turkmenistan's energy resources,” he stressed.

President Aliyev went on to add that the Turkmen oil is transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, thus strengthening our cooperation.

Noting that transport is one of the main topics of relations with Turkmenistan, he said that it is not coincidence that there are leaders of all transport organizations of Azerbaijan in my delegation.

“They are already actively working with their Turkmen counterparts,” he added.

Concluding his speech, President Aliyev expressed opinion that the results of the visit will be very positive and will serve to bring our countries closer.

Berdimuhamedov, addressing the expanded meeting, said that in the foreign policy our principles are undoubtedly similar or overlapping.

“That is, we are for the preservation of stability and security both in the region and throughout the world. We are grateful to you for supporting all the initiatives of Turkmenistan in the international arena. Of course, we are mutually supportive in each of the spheres, such as the United Nations and OSCE, in influential institutions and international organizations,” he said.

Berdimuhamedov also said that the Caspian Sea unites two countries.

“The Caspian littoral states recently adopted the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian. That's why there are great opportunities for us, including good neighborly issues. The main issue is that we all share the same view - the Caspian Sea is a peaceful and friendly neighborhood, and we will continue our activity in this spirit,” he added.

Speaking of trade-economic issues, he noted the work of an intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation.

“Fortunately, the commodity turnover has increased by 17 percent compared to the same period last year. Good trends have emerged in areas such as agriculture, construction, industry. New technologies in Azerbaijan, of course, attract us,” Berdimuhamedov said.

The signing ceremony of a number of the Azerbaijani-Turkmen documents with the participation of President Ilham Aliyev and President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was held after the expanded meeting.

The agreements cover the areas of taxation, science, education, culture and art, railway, oil and gas, communication and high technologies, trade and economy.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan created a powerful industrial and agricultural base, modern transport infrastructure, and now it is necessary to launch large-scale projects of industrial cooperation, interaction in the service sector and the agricultural complex.

Petrochemical, gas chemical and electric power industries as well as communications and telecommunications spheres were specified among the priority spheres for cooperation.

Earlier, it was reported that Turkmenistan plans to join Baku-TbilisiKars (BTK) railway.

The trade turnover between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan amounted to $164.1 million in 2017. Exports from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan amounted to $54.1 million, imports of Turkmen goods to Azerbaijan amounted to $110 million.