Issues of further cooperation between Russia and Turkmenistan in various fields, as well as new opportunities for mutually beneficial partnership in bilateral and multilateral formats were discussed today at a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mihail Mishustin. The transcript of their conversation is published on the official website of the Government of the Russian Federation

The talks were held in Kazan within the framework of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, in the work of which the delegation of Turkmenistan takes part at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a guest of honor.

During the meeting, the head of the Government of the Russian Federation confirmed Russia's interest in strengthening friendship, good-neighborliness, partnership, and mutual economic development with Turkmenistan.

“We would like to give a new impetus to bilateral cooperation, create the necessary conditions for restarting promising joint projects and initiatives in various areas of the economy,” Mishustin said.

Serdar Berdimuhamedov thanked the Russian side for the invitation to participate in the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and expressed hope that this meeting will stimulate the development of mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia in both bilateral and multilateral formats.

According to him, the volume of trade between Turkmenistan and Russia last year amounted to 1.374 USD billion.

The Russian Prime Minister stressed that, despite the impact of coronavirus restrictions, this figure is a record over the past five years, and compared to 2019, the volume of trade between the two countries has grown by 40 percent.

The interlocutors also touched upon the issues of cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

“Unfortunately, last year due to the pandemic, a number of joint planned cultural events had to be postponed. As the epidemiological situation normalizes, we will definitely hold the Days of Culture, the Week of Russian Cinema in Turkmenistan, as well as cross tours of our leading theaters,” Mishustin promised.

In turn, Serdar Berdimuhamedov recalled that Turkmenistan pays great attention to teaching the Russian language.

“Russian language and literature lessons are taught in educational institutions of our country, in all schools,” said the Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister, head of the Supreme Control Chamber.

He also recalled that during the pandemic, 36,000 students from Turkmenistan studied at the higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation.