Nursultan Nazarbayev, having greeted Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov on the Kazakh land, congratulated the Turkmen leader on winning the last presidential election.
- We highly appreciate your decision to make one of your first visits after the elections to our country. Kazakhstan is connected with the Turkmen people by partner, neighborly and fraternal ties and evidence of that are the relations that have developed over the 25 years of our states’ independence, characterized by mutual understanding, cooperation on issues of both regional and international agenda, the Head of the State said.
The President of Kazakhstan noted the full support of mutual initiatives by the two countries.
- One of the major joint projects, which have become possible thanks to our friendship, is the construction of a railway from Kazakhstan to Iran via Turkmenistan along the Silk Road. This issue will be discussed in more detail on May 15 in Beijing at the big ‘One Belt, One Way’ forum. This project is considered as the most important route, and our task is to substantively overview this agreement, Nursultan Nazarbayev concluded.
In addition, the Head of the State has identified other issues of bilateral cooperation, including those within the framework of documents prepared to be inked by the parties, and took a note of the visit’s significance for the successful development of bilateral relations in the current difficult period in the world economy and politics.
In turn, Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov expressed gratitude to Nursultan Nazarbayev for the invitation to visit Kazakhstan, noted that Turkmenistan has always adhered to the principles of friendliness, good-neighborliness and respect and, at the present stage of its development it builds relations with other countries, guided by these postulates.
- Our vision for the regional and international agenda, related to security issues and peaceful settlement of conflicts, coincides with the position of the Kazakh side. We support Kazakhstan's initiatives in the UN Security Council, where Kazakhstan is a non-permanent member, the President of Turkmenistan said.
Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov noted the growing role of joint projects in the trade-economic, transport-energy and cultural-humanitarian spheres.
The leaders of the two countries have expressed hope that the visit will give a new impetus to the Kazakh-Turkmen cooperation in a wide range of areas.
