ASHGABAT, October 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived on Monday in Turkmenistan for an official visit to expand bilateral relations.
The Russian president is expected to meet with President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to discuss key issues in the development of bilateral cooperation on political, trade-economic, scientific-educational and cultural-humanitarian trajectories, as well as topical regional issues, the Kremlin press service said earlier. A number of bilateral documents are to be signed following the talks.
Last time Putin visited Turkmenistan in December 2012, while the Turkmen leader was in Russia on a working visit last November. This year, the leaders have talked three times over the phone.
In the run-up to Putin’s visit to Ashgabat, the Russian government approved draft agreements between Russia and Turkmenistan on development of cooperation in tourism and agriculture. Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, who visited Turkmenistan in mid-September, said the parties were preparing a range of interstate, intergovernmental and interagency agreements ahead of the Russian president’s visit, that are expected to bolster bilateral ties.
As of the present moment, Russia and Turkmenistan have more than 120 agreements and treaties in total, the basic of them being the Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation of April 23, 2002 (that replaced a similar document of 1992). Trade and economic cooperation between the two countries is based on the intergovernmental agreements on free trade of November 11, 1992, and on trade and economic cooperation of August 30, 2008. The intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation has been operating since February 2003.Diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkmenistan were established on April 8, 1992.