Long-time allies Turkmenistan and Türkiye have agreed to boost their cooperation, Deputy Chair of Turkmenistan’s Cabinet Nökergulı Ataguliyev said Tuesday.
Ataguliyev spoke at a joint news conference held at the Presidential Complex following the Intergovernmental Commission Meeting with Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz.
A Turkmen delegation, led by Turkmenistan’s Parliament Speaker Dünyagözel Gulmanowa, is visiting Ankara to meet with Turkish counterparts.
Erdoğan separately received Gulmanowa at the Presidential Complex for a closed-door meeting, also accompanied by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş.
Turkmen and Turkish committees exchanged ideas on cooperation in different sectors and future activities within the scope of action plans to further advance mutual relations, Ataguliyev told reporters.
“We discussed opportunities in the fields of transportation and logistics at the meeting and that they will develop cooperation in urban planning, construction, water resources, sports and energy,” he said.
Emphasizing that the Turkmen-Turkish brotherhood has continued for 1,000 years, Ataguliyev said that relations and cooperation have developed with the mutual initiatives of the leaders of the two countries.
“Türkiye and Turkmenistan work with the understanding of one nation, two states,” Kurtulmuş said separately at a news conference with Gulmanowa.
Gulmanowa said the sides reached an agreement on the development of the relations between their Parliaments, the work of friendship groups and the development of cooperation between young and female parliamentarians.
Kurtulmuş expressed his hope that the visit would further develop relations between the two countries.
“With today’s visit, we will move forward to further strengthen existing relations between the two countries by using all the possibilities of parliamentary diplomacy at the parliamentary level and between the parliaments,” he said.
Gulmanowa and the Turkmen delegation’s visit is extremely valuable in terms of showing the importance given to Turkmenistan's relations with Türkiye and Türkiye-Turkmenistan relations, he noted.
"Despite all this, I would like to state that our bilateral trade relations are not at the expected level of $1.2 billion, and the common goal of both country leaders is to increase this to $5 billion,” Kurtulmuş said.
Similarly, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Tuesday that Türkiye was negotiating an agreement with Turkmenistan to extend a five-year natural gas supply deal.
The deal is expected to be finalized within the year.
Earlier this month, Bayraktar said that Türkiye and Turkmenistan had signed a deal to supply Turkmen natural gas to Türkiye. The agreement between Türkiye's state-owned pipeline operator BOTAS and Turkmenistan's Turkmengaz is set to begin on March 1, with gas flows of 1.3 billion cubic meters via Iran.
Pointing out a shared history, culture, language and art, Kurtulmuş added it was their “responsibility and duty to ensure that this commonality is passed on to the next generations.”
Turkmenistan joined the Organization of Turkic States as an observer country in 2021, and Türkiye wants the country to become a full member of the bloc.
The country is known for its permanent neutrality policy. According to its neutral status and the obligations reflected in its law on neutrality, Turkmenistan does not participate in military blocs and alliances and does not allow the creation of military bases on its territory or its use by other countries for military purposes.
