On November 12, 2021, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov departed for a working visit to Istanbul, Turkey to participate at the Eighth Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council).
The current Summit with the theme “Green Technologies and Smart Cities in the Digital Age” was attended by the Heads of the participating states, Secretary General of the Turkic Council and Prime Minister of Hungary, which is an observer state.
The Head of Turkmenistan was warmly, fraternally greeted by the President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The agenda of the Summit was very rich. The leaders discussed a wide range of issues concerning the future of the Council, and also made a number of important decisions in this context. There was an exchange of views on current regional and international political and economic developments.
Speaking at the high-level meeting, the President of Turkmenistan noted the special importance of this meeting. As is known, Turkmenistan regularly takes part in dialogues of this format as a guest of honor. Today, during this Summit, a decision is being made for Turkmenistan to join the association of Turkic Speaking States as an observer. This is literally a historic event of paramount importance, marking the beginning of a qualitatively new stage in Turkmenistan’s interaction with the Turkic Speaking States, said the Leader of the Nation.
In this regard, based on the principles of neutrality, Turkmenistan considers consistent and targeted strengthening of economic and trade partnerships as the most priority of cooperation.
The sides particularly noted the potential of the countries in such strategic areas as the ecology, energy and transport. The expediency of developing a well-thought-out common strategy of Turkic Speaking States by intensifying joint work with specialized international organizations, particularly with the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific was expressed.
The need to enhance collaboration within the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and other international and regional structures has been emphasized in order to implement in practice the international agenda of our countries to strengthen universal peace, stability and mutual understanding.
The current Summit opens a new page in relations of Turkmenistan with the brotherly states. This belief is based on the common centuries-old experience, our kinship, the strength and inseparability of spiritual and moral values and foundations, said the President of Turkmenistan.
This dialogue provided an effective platform for participants to discuss pressing issues of cooperation. Participants exchanged views on improving the mutually acceptable partnership in the economic, transport, energy, environmental and cultural fields, taking into account the humanitarian dimension.
As a result of the high-level meeting, the “The Turkic World Vision-2040” and the decision on Turkmenistan’s accession to the Council as an observer country were approved. In addition, the statuses of partner and observer countries were specified.
During the Summit, the participants also adopted the final document of the 8th Summit – Istanbul Declaration, as well as considered a number of important documents aimed at developing and strengthening the multi-format dialogue within the association of Turkic Speaking States.
