Official visit of President of Turkmenistan H.E. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Pakistan

On March 16-17, 2016, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov paid official visit to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

This event marked the beginning of a qualitatively new stage in the history of international relations built on trust and mutual respect. In the framework of this visit President of Turkmenistan held high-level talks with Pakistani President H.E. Mr. Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister H.E. Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. According to their results there were signed by a solid package of documents that will serve to further strengthen the political, diplomatic, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian relations between Turkmenistan and Pakistan.

The potential of interstate cooperation and ways of its implementation were also discussed at the meeting of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov with the Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

Meeting and discussing the key issues and priorities for the intergovernmental dialogue, the leaders of two brotherly countries stressed the importance of further bolstering the economic cooperation. Mutual commitment and interest develop the preconditions for implementation of large-scale joint projects for the interest of not only Turkmen and Pakistan people, but also for the entire region.

A significant and highly symbolic event of this visit was the assignment of the President of Turkmenistan scientific degree of Honorary Doctor of Political Sciences of the University of «Kaid-i-Azam» of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This high rank of the Turkmen leader awarded for the great personal contribution to the strengthening of friendly relations between the fraternal Turkmen and Pakistani people, outstanding achievements in the development of bilateral relations in the field of science and education.

The top-level meetings highlighted the solid, well-adjusted policies of Turkmenistan and Pakistan to further intensification of cooperation both in bilateral and multilateral formats, including the United Nations, the Economic Cooperation Organization, and other major international organizations and structures.

There were concretized approaches to the development of long-term strategy of effective partnership in various sectors of the economy. In particular, special attention during the talks was paid to cooperation in the energy sector. In this regard, there was underlined the importance of the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan -Pakistan-India gas pipeline, which is beneficial not only for our countries, but also has great significance on a regional scale.

During the speaking to the media President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted that the start of its implementation has been given due to the joint efforts of all the member countries of this project, which will bring together the countries and will serve as a bridge of friendship and brotherhood among peoples. This gas pipeline will bring warmth to the houses of the peoples of closest neighbor and brotherly countries and will create great opportunities for further development of their economies, including the enhancement of well-being of the people of Pakistan and creation of new jobs.

Noting the importance of the pipeline for the promotion of cooperation in the social- economic and cultural-humanitarian spheres, the Turkmen leader expressed the strong belief that in the near future, the TAPI project will be successfully put into effect and would give an impulse to regional and global development.

Speaking about the crucial importance of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline as a large-scale project of regional importance, the Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif reaffirmed his country's great interest in cooperation with Turkmenistan in the energy sector, which is due to Pakistan's energy needs. As the head of a friendly state government, for him it was a great honor to take part in the ceremony of start of construction of the transnational gas pipeline, held last on December 13, 2015, in Mary province of Turkmenistan, as citing the words of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif: "I am sure that Turkmen gas will fully satisfy the needs of our industrial sector of the economy".

A very promising course of interstate relations in the negotiations, that held in Islamabad was marked the transit transport sphere. Because Pakistan for Turkmenistan is the shortest route to the oceans, and Turkmenistan for Pakistan - a gateway to Central Asia and CIS countries. This topic was further developed in the second day of the visit, when the President of Turkmenistan and Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan visited together one of the most popular mountain resorts in the country - an area Murree, where is located the residence of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Here has been taken place the presentation of the projects on developing land transport linkages, which docked with other types of messages, which will promote intensive economic integration of the region's states.

Moreover, beneficial for both countries seems to implementation of joint projects in energy, agriculture, textile, light industry and reprocessing industry, as reflected in the Joint Communique of the President of Turkmenistan and Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as well as a package of other documents signed according to the results of the meetings. So, in addition to the development of cooperation at the level of foreign affairs, finance and oil ministries of both countries, given a new impetus to the partnership in the sphere of science and education, the establishment of direct contacts between universities and research institutions of the two countries.

It is significant that during this visit to Islamabad there was held a business forum with participation of representatives of state bodies and business circles of Turkmenistan and Pakistan, in which stated the presence of a wide field for a productive intergovernmental dialogue and put forward for discussion proposals for its capacity. Among the central topics of the meeting – Increase the volume and variety of trade turnover between the two countries, investment cooperation, including the industrial sector, the intensification of partnership in the textile sector, through small and medium-sized businesses and etc. Other bilateral meetings of representatives of national ministries and departments were also organized, public and private companies with the Pakistani counterparts, during which they discussed issues of cooperation in the framework of the new contracts, the possible directions of further development of the partnership.

Being committed to the traditions of good-neighborliness from the earliest times binding the two friendly peoples - of Turkmenistan and Pakistan by enhancing productive partnership from year to year, become the most important fact of stability and sustainable development region-wide.