President of Russia Vladimir Putin during the talks with President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov in Moscow on Friday highlighted the increasing bilateral trade between the countries, according to the press release issued by the Kremlin.
“I would like to point out that during the pandemic year, unfortunately, our trade turnover declined slightly, by a little over ten percent,” Putin said, adding that “but today, despite all the external difficulties, there was an increase of more than 40% in the first quarter [of 2022], and that is very serious movement forward.”
In turn, President Berdimuhamedov said Russia is one of Turkmenistan's major trade partners.
“Economic cooperation concerns not only energy but also industry, transport, infrastructure construction and other areas,” Serdar Berdimuhamedov stated.
In a press briefing on the summit, Putin announced that the Russian-Turkmen Economic Cooperation Commission is working on the diversification of commodity and investment exchanges and opportunities.
"Not long ago its co-chairman visited Ashgabat to discuss promising joint projects and expansion of the practice of using national currencies in mutual settlements of the two countries," President Putin added.
The Russian Head of State outlined energy among the key sectors of bilateral partnership, and said special attention was paid to energy issues at the talks.
The talks also touched on such an important topic as the further development of industrial cooperation, the Russian President said. Putin added that both sides expressed willingness to implement new large-scale initiatives in the construction sphere.
Addressing the press briefing, the Head of Turkmenistan stressed that the two countries have sufficient potential to increase the volume of mutual trade, investments, implementation of joint projects in such spheres as industry, transport, energy, agriculture and a number of other areas.
This visit to Russia is President Berdimuhamedov’s first official trip abroad since he took office on March 15. During the visit, the Presidents of Russia and Turkmenistan signed a Declaration on Deepening Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
