Georgia, Turkmenistan Presidents meet in Ashgabat

Georgia and Turkmenistan are intensifying bilateral economic relations.

Latest data revealed between January-October 2015, trade turnover between the two countries had increased by 63 percent in comparison to the previous year.

Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili met his Turkmenistan counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow within the Georgian leader’s Turkmenistan visit yesterday. The pair confirmed their commitment to active political bilateral dialogue and summed up the achievements of the year to date.

Margvelashvili noted active political relations had influenced economic cooperation, which resulted in a "significant increase” of trade turnover, number of tourists and investments from Turkmenistan to Georgia.

The Georgian President also congratulated Berdimuhamedow on implementing the "East-West” pipeline project and noted this project created the foundations to transit gas from Turkmenistan to Europe via Georgia.

The President said Georgia was an active participant of the Southern Gas Corridor project and hydrocarbon resources from Turkmenistan were very important for fully implementing the project.

"Therefore Georgia fully supports the ‘Ashgabat Declaration’ adopted in May of [2015] and welcomes the creation of a working team upon the EU initiative to contribute to the construction of the ‘Trans-Caspian Pipeline’,” said Margvelashvili.

He noted the Silk Road project also created broader transport cooperation perspectives between Turkmenistan and Georgia.

The President also spoke highly of the Lapis Lazuli project, which was an Afghanistan initiative and aimed to develop transport, transit and trade relations between Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Furthermore, the two officials discussed the current situation in Georgia’s conflict regions and urged the international community to pursue the non-recognition policy of the occupied territories of Georgia.