Russia is sincerely interested in strengthening friendship, good-neighborliness, partnership, and mutual economic development with Turkmenistan. Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin said this at the negotiations with Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov after the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council held in Kazan on April 29-30, Interfax reported.

Noting the significant growth in trade with Turkmenistan, achieved despite the pandemic, Mishustin emphasized that it was necessary to create conditions for restarting promising joint projects.

 According to the Russian Prime Minister, Moscow would like to «give a new impetus to bilateral cooperation, create the necessary conditions for restarting promising joint projects and initiatives in various fields of the economy». According to Mishustin, the two countries «have made serious progress in the field of trade, despite the crisis and world processes that do not easily affect mutual relations».

 He cited data from Russian statistics, which indicated that mutual trade increased by almost 40% compared to 2019. «This is a record level over the past five years», Mishustin said, adding that «leading Russian companies are successfully operating in Turkmenistan, large joint projects are being implemented in mechanical engineering, transport infrastructure, the oil and gas sector, agriculture, and telecommunications».

«Cooperation in the medical and sanitary-epidemiological fields remains among our priorities»,said the chairman of the Russian government.  He drew attention to the fact that «cooperation in the educational sphere is developing successfully, the number of Turkmen students studying in Russia is growing every year - now there are over 30 thousand of them».

For his part, Serdar Berdimuhamedov thanked for the invitation to attend the meeting in Kazan. «Turkmenistan today for the first time took part in the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council as an honored guest, we hope that the meeting will give impetus to new opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation in both bilateral and multilateral formats», he said.

 The Vice Prime Minister stressed that «Turkmenistan pays great attention to cooperation with the Russian Federation, the main factor in the dynamic development of relations is an open, friendly political dialogue between the Presidents of the two countries». He also noted that interaction was developing in all sectors.

 According to the state news agency of Turkmenistan, during the meeting, the significant role of the joint Intergovernmental Commission in the practical solution of issues of cooperation and the development of its promising directions was stated.  It was also noted that the results of the working visit of the Turkmen delegation to Moscow in March, which held over 60 meetings with Russian colleagues, signed more than 10 bilateral documents, gave new incentives to long-term cooperation.

 It was also noteworthy that the volume of foreign trade turnover of Turkmenistan with the Russian Federation in 2020 amounted to about $1 billion 380 million USD.

Also noted that the dynamic nature was inherent in cooperation between Turkmenistan and large subjects of the Russian Federation, including the Republic of Tatarstan, the Astrakhan region, St. Petersburg and other regions.