Romania, Turkmenistan seeking ’strong’ development of bilateral relations

Romania and Turkmenistan seek the ''strong'' development of bilateral relations, not only on political, but also on economic ground, is the conclusion of the talks held on Wednesday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace by the two chiefs of states, Traian Basescu and Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, on the occasion of the latter's official visit to Romania.

'We decided to strongly develop our bilateral relations, not only at political, but also at economic level. The development of economic ties does not envisage only the energy area, but all economic activities that can be developed under a Romania-Turkmenistan partnership. To this aim, we decided to establish an intergovernmental commission that should analyze all possibilities of bilateral cooperation,' President Traian Basescu said at the end of the meeting.

According to the Romanian President, the documents signed on the occasion of the visit of his Turkmen counterpart are 'highly important' and are meant to provide mutual guarantees for investments, the development of economic relations, cooperation in the sector of education and between the two Foreign Ministries. The subject of the European Nabucco pipeline project was also tackled during talks.

In turn, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov said that the two countries have common priorities. ''We succeeded in setting solid grounds for the development of our bilateral relations. We don't start from scratch, this relation already has a tradition, as Romania counts to the states that recognized 17 years ago the independence of Turkmenistan, and it is highly important for us to find that we have a great potential for the development of our relations,' said Berdimukhamedov. He noted that commercial exchanges witnessed a strong growth the year before and are further following an upward trend.

Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov said that another way whereby Romania can support Turkmenistan's approaches to develop relations with European states is by actions undertaken within the UN, NATO and EU.

'The sets of documents signed today, especially those related to economy, where our interests are highest, stand witness to the development of cooperation development. Turkmenistan is extremely rich in resources and is ready to cooperate with Romania in this area. Turkmenistan is interested in developing top-technologies and equipment for the processing of these resources. Here too we find that we have common priorities and our cooperation also targets other activities in agriculture, transportation and constructions,' said the Turkmen President.

Berdimukhamedov mentioned that his country offers Romanian companies the possibility to participate in projects that are highly important for Turkmenistan, like the development of the Caspian Sea draft agreement.

''We discussed the construction of plant, infrastructure, in particular rail on the north-south, east-west direction, linking Turkmenistan to Europe and the Persian Gulf. We also discussed cooperation in education. Hundreds of Turkmen students are currently studying all over the world and we hope for Romanian prestigious academic institutions to also count to the institutes providing training to our students,' said Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov.

He thanked his Romanian counterpart for the positive outcomes of the meeting and invited Traian Basescu to Turkmenistan.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov is paying a two-day visit to Romania at the invitation of President Traian Basescu.

On this occasion, the sides signed the agreement between the governments of Romania and Turkmenistan on economic cooperation, the protocol between the two governments to the agreement on the mutual promotion and protection of investments signed in Bucharest on November 16, 1994, the Convention between the Government of Romania and the Government of Turkmenistan to prevent double taxation and tax evasion related to income and capital taxes, the cooperation program in the line of education to be jointly implemented by the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research and Youth and Turkmenistan's Ministry of Education between 2008-2012, and the Memorandum of understanding between the Romanian and the Turkmen Foreign Ministries.

Other entries on the agenda of the Turkmen President are meetings with Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and Senate president Nicolae Vacaroiu, followed by a trip to Ploiesti, where he will meet the leadership of the local Oil and Gas University.

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On December 20, 1991, Romania acknowledged the statehood of Turkmenistan; the two states established diplomatic relations on July 20, 1992.

On December 2007, bilateral exchanges stood at an aggregate amount of 148.38 million dollars, of which exports accounted for 14.36 million dollars and imports for 134.02 million dollars.

Romania imports from Turkmenistan mineral products and cotton, and exports machines, electric equipment, devices, metals.