India, Turkmenistan sign 4 MoUs, agree to expand bilateral trade
Ashgabat: India and Turkmenistan signed four agreements, including in financial intelligence and disaster management, as President Ram Nath Kovind met his Turkmen counterpart Serdar Berdimuhamedov here on Saturday and agreed to expand bilateral trade and energy cooperation to further strengthen the multifaceted partnership.
This is the first-ever visit of the President of India to independent Turkmenistan and comes just after the inauguration of new Turkmen President Berdimuhamedov.
During his meeting today with the President of Turkmenistan Berdimuhamedov, President Kovind held a detailed discussion on the state and prospects of bilateral relations and also exchanged views on various regional and international issues of importance.
We have agreed to intensify efforts to further strengthen our multifaceted partnership. Economic relations strengthen bilateral ties. We agreed to do more to expand bilateral trade which has remained modest. Our business communities must deepen their engagement, understand each other's regulations and identify new areas of trade and investment, the president said in a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The two leaders highlighted the significance of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the Ashgabat Agreement on International Transport and Transit Corridor. President Kovind pointed out that the Chabahar port built by India in Iran could be used to improve trade between India and Central Asia.
Cooperation in energy was one of the key areas of our discussions today. On the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, I suggested that issues related to the security of the pipeline and key business principles may be addressed in Technical and Expert level meetings, the president said.
Asked if the issue of the TAPI pipeline could come up during talks, Sanjay Verma, Secretary West in the MEA, told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday that "it is a difficult neighbourhood if you look at the geography. So, in that sense, this itself was a task in negotiating the pipeline."
"Thereafter it is on record that India has some concerns about the commercial and business aspect of the TAPI pipeline and that is being discussed," he said, adding that the president's visit will be another opportunity to "revisit where we stand" on this issue.
During the talks between President Kovind and his Turkmenistan counterpart, the two countries also identified new areas of cooperation such as disaster management.
