Turkey and Turkmenistan discuss TANAP

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov held a meeting in Ashgabat.

“We know that we need to accelerate our relations. We will from now on meet more regularly and more often," Cavusoglu said after a meeting with his Turkmen counterpart

“During today’s talks, we have evaluated particularly our trade relations and bilateral investments. On the other hand, we have discussed our very important topics such as energy and transportation,” Anadolu Agency cited the Turkish diplomat as saying.

On the revival of historic Silk Road, the ancient network of trade routes that connected the East and West, Cavusoglu stressed that Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan have very important responsibilities.

The Turkish minister said they discussed railway and land transportation projects, energy security and ways of laying subsea pipelines in the Caspian Sea to revive the historic route.

They also addressed the ways to link Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in order to carry the Turkmen gas into European and the world markets for the revival of the route.

Following the meeting, Cavusoglu and Meredov inked a document on the cooperation program between the two ministries for 2019-2020.

The 1,850-kilometer-long TANAP was officially inaugurated on May 29 during a ceremony held in Baku with the participation of Azerbaijan's president.