During his speech at the 15th ECO Summit, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov also touched upon energy issues, highlighted the importance of expanding the transport and communication sphere.
“Among the priority directions of the ECO, Turkmenistan sees the development of cooperation in the transport and energy spheres,” the Head of state noted. He stressed that at present, these segments of the partnership objectively act as a defining trend in global economic growth.
In this context, the President of Turkmenistan voiced the need to consolidate joint efforts in this direction and gave examples of the phased implementation of the construction of power transmission lines along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route, railways from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, as well as the advancement of the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
It was noted that Turkmenistan pays special attention to the activation of transport and transit communication along the East-West and South-North lines. In particular, this is about the creation of transport corridors Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan - Iran - Oman, as well as Afghanistan - Turkmenistan - Azerbaijan - Georgia - Turkey.
In this regard, the President of Turkmenistan proposed to study the use of logistics and infrastructure facilities in Turkmenistan itself in order to activate transport and transit communication between the regions of the Caspian basin and the Black Sea with access to the countries of Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region.
The President of Turkmenistan noted the importance of Afghanistan's participation in these processes, which thus becomes an active subject, a valuable and integral participant in economic partnership. “We see this as a strategic prospect for Afghanistan, its role in regional and global processes, the most important condition for achieving peace, harmony and development on Afghan soil,” added the Head of Turkmenistan.
