Turkmenistan-United States Working Group on Security held its first meeting at the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan in Ashgabat on Saturday.
In his opening speech, Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Vepa Hajiyev said the meeting forms the basis for subsequent consultations to identify priority areas for bilateral cooperation on security issues, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in its press release.
The sides discussed regional and international agenda issues and stressed the need to effectively counter the threats of terrorism, drug trafficking and other illegal activities. The fight against cybercrime and measures to strengthen information security were singled out as important areas of cooperation.
The meeting placed special emphasis on peace building in Afghanistan. Hajiyev emphasized that Turkmenistan is interested in the political and economic stability of Afghanistan, welfare and unity of the Afghan people. In this context, he stated the effectiveness of multilateral formats of interaction, including such as Central Asia+US and Turkmenistan-US-Afghanistan.
Participants of the Working Group meeting expressed interest in continuing the dialogue.
Turkmenistan and the US established diplomatic ties in 1992.
