Uzbek president to make first official visit to Turkmenistan

Uzbek Ambassador to Turkmenistan Javankhar Izamov presented Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov a message from Uzbek President Islam Karimov who plans to visit Turkmenistan, Trend reports.

A gas pipeline was launched in December 2009, running from Turkmenistan to China through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan consider building a railway to connect Central Asia and states of the Gulf.

They also plan to increase mutual investments and diversify cooperation. The two states plan to increase trade turnover to $1 billion in two years, as stated at the 8th session of the Uzbek-Turkmen commission for trade-economic, science-technical and cultural cooperation in Tashkent in September.

They signed intergovernmental agreements on long-term trade-economic cooperation in January 1996.

Trade turnover of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan increased 1.7-fold in 2011 to $454.3 million ($168.6 million of Uzbek exports and $285.7 million of imports). Uzbekistan has 7 enterprises with Turkmen capital, Turkmenistan has 6 enterprises formed with Uzbek investors.