President of Turkmenistan and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Harmonize Approaches towards Intensified Cooperation

The capital of the United Arab Emirates hosted talks between the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. 

A day earlier, on 14 March, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov met in Abu Dhabi with the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and the UAE Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. 

Today the official welcoming ceremony for the distinguished guest and bilateral talks took place at the Presidential Palace. 

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, stressed that his country attaches great importance to this visit by the President of Turkmenistan in the context of further comprehensive strengthening of bilateral ties. 

It was also emphasized that the UAE highly appreciate the constructive foreign policy course pursued by neutral Turkmenistan and creative initiatives put forward by its national leader that are widely supported and recognized by the global community. 

The President of Turkmenistan also noted that the Turkmen side regards this high-level meeting as an important event in the history of traditionally friendly interstate relations. 

Cooperation between Turkmenistan and the UAE built both on bilateral level and within the framework of international organizations is characterized by the high level of mutual understanding and close partnership. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted that our countries have sufficient capacities for stepping up joint efforts to achieve sustainable development in the region and around the globe, and expressed his belief in the availability of positive options for increased mutually beneficial cooperation in various spheres. 

Joint Committee on Cooperation plays a major role in strengthening Turkmen-Emirati relations. In this context, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov spoke in favor of holding regular consultations between delegations of the two countries with a view to enhancing the mutual export and import potential, increasing the trade turnover and intensifying economic partnership. As is known, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates are among the richest countries of the world in terms of natural reserves, which creates opportunities for effective combination of efforts in fuel and energy sectors, offers wide prospects for cooperation in production and processing of oil and gas and taking energy resources to global markets. 

Dwelling on that, the Turkmen leader invited major companies, UAE’s investment and financial structures to cooperate in implementation of the recently launched second phase of construction of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India gas pipeline, and expressed his conviction that such partnership will promote further strengthening of mutually beneficial ties. 

Turkmenistan and the UAE also place a special focus on development of construction and chemical industry, which enables the countries to outline new forms of cooperation in these areas. Facilitating contacts in producing construction materials and chemical products appears quite promising. 

One of important vectors of the interstate partnership is a strategically important transport sphere. Taking into account the favorable geographic location of Turkmenistan and the UAE, cooperation for creation of international transport and communication corridors, joining potentials to establish a multiple-vector transport infrastructure appears reasonable. 

Humanitarian sphere invariably remains an integral part of Turkmenistan-UAE relations. Wide possibilities exist for reinforcement of effective cooperation in science, education, culture, art and creation. It is also necessary to develop contacts to study the rich historical and cultural heritage of the peoples of the two countries. 

The sides also exchanged views on a range of important aspects of international politics and noted the proximity or accordance of approaches of the two countries towards priority issues of regional and global agenda, specifically those related to securing global peace, security and progressive development. 

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov thanked the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi for increased focus on development of the interstate partnership and invited Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Turkmenistan for an official visit at any convenient time, expressing his conviction that this visit would open a new page in the history of relations between Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.