President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov participates in the CIS informal summit in St. Petersburg

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov participated in the CIS informal summit in St. Petersburg.

In the morning the President’s plane landed at the Pulkovo International Airport. The high-ranking officials of the RF Government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and St. Petersburg Mayor’ Office greeted the Turkmen leader at the Airport from the Airport the Turkmen leader’s cortege headed for the residence in Strelna.

Then Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov arrived in the Constantine Palace where he had a meeting with RF President Dmitriy Medvedev. In the afternoon the Turkmen leader had a meeting with President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko. At the Constantine Palace RF President Dmitriy Medvedev welcomed the participants of the CIS informal summit – the heads of the CIS member states.

Then the leaders of the CIS states participated in the ceremony of opening the summit in the Marble Hall. The ceremony turned into the open discussion of the issues of further development of co-operation in the framework of the CIS, the effective approaches to enhancing and expanding equal mutually advantageous partnership on the long-term basis.

Over the past years Turkmenistan acts in the Commonwealth of Independent States as an associated member that is conditioned by the country’s international commitments evolved from the status of permanent neutrality. Adhering to the consistent position on collaboration in the framework of the Commonwealth Turkmenistan has considerably intensified its participation in the CIS that conforms to the Turkmen leader’s foreign policy strategy aimed at expanding the international contacts to intensify and enhance fruitful co-operation in the interests of peace and sustainable development. The steady tendency of intensifying co-operation between Turkmenistan and CIS states that is successfully developed in both bilateral and multilateral formats evidences this position.

Opening the meeting RF President Dmitriy Medvedev cordially greeted the colleagues and then gave the floor to Kurmanbek Bakiev – the President of Kyrgyzstan that chairs the CIS in 2008. On behalf of the participants of the summit the Kyrgyz leader congratulated RF President Dmitriy Medvedev and President of Armenia Serj Sarkisian on assuming office and thanked the Russian Government for the initiative of holding the meeting and perfect organisation of the forum. Presenting the agenda the Chairperson said that it included the current issues of development of economic collaboration, in particular the strategy of co-operation in the sphere of transport and the organizational issues of a regular meeting of the Council of the heads of the CIS states

Then the floor was given to the participants of the summit – the heads of the CIS member states. Addressing the meeting President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov thanked for the invitation to take part in the XII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and the heartfelt welcomes extended to the Turkmen delegation in St. Petersburg. The Turkmen leader congratulated RF President Dmitriy Medvedev on the successful start of the activity at the high post and wished the Russian leader further accomplishments in the responsible work for the benefit of the Russian people.

Presenting Turkmenistan’s position on designing the CIS economic co-operation strategy Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that development of bilateral co-operation with different countries worldwide including the CIS member states was a priority of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy strategy. Turkmenistan considered the opportunities of collaborating in the extended formats – depending on the problems and tasks under discussion

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that Turkmenistan took a well thought-out approach searching for new forms and ways of intergovernmental collaboration in a broad range of fields, first of all in the trade and economic sphere, the fuel and energy sector and the cultural and humanitarian sphere. The Turkmen leader noted that in recent years Turkmenistan had held the top level meeting and talks with the leaders of the majority of the CIS member states, signed a number of the important bilateral documents. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that it was gratifying to note that the agreements were taking the concrete shape in the projects launched in various fields of co-operation and thanked the colleagues – the leaders of the CIS countries for fulfilling the partner obligations. The President of Turkmenistan cited substantially intensified co-operation in the fuel and energy sector and transport as an example. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted that a constructive approach was taken towards co-operation and implementation of the agreements achieved on the border issues.

Encouraging the initiatives aimed at enhancing fruitful contacts in the traditional cultural and humanitarian sphere standing as a crucial element of co-operation in the framework of the CIS the Turkmen leader stated with satisfaction that the relations between Turkmenistan and the CIS member states had been brought up to a higher level in recent years. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stated that Turkmenistan intended to advance along the course of overall development of fruitful partnership with the CIS.

The Turkmen leader said that the summits, official meetings and other events at various levels in the framework of the CIS provided an opportunity of regular exchange of views and search for the effective approaches to development of mutually advantageous co-operation. In this regard, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov wished successful work to the organizers and participants of the XII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and put emphasis on the significance of such specialized forums focused on the priority fields and current trends of international partnership. In this regard, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov put forward the proposal to hold the Forum of CIS Agricultural Producers and an exhibition of agricultural products, machines and advanced technologies in Ashgabat in 2009. The Turkmen leader said that the need in this forum was conditioned by a task mankind was to fulfill nowadays – to ensure food security.

In concluding Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that Turkmenistan welcomed the initiatives to strengthen national economies of the CIS states and expressed belief that the current meeting would be another important step towards further optimization of partnership among the CIS member states.

Upon concluding the informal summit the Turkmen leader left the Constantine Palace for the Pulkovo International Airport. The official persons bade farewell to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov at the Airport.

In the evening Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov returned to Ashgabat.