Ashgabat, 11 October 2019, (GNP): Commonwealth of Independent States Heads of State Summit held in the city of Ashgabat. The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan , Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the prime minister of Armenia, as well as the Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee and Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev are arriving in Turkmenistan are participating in the ongoing Summit. Speaking at the Ashgabat meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State, the President of Turkmenistan outlined the economic partnership as an important component of cooperation between the CIS.
As emphasized, Turkmenistan stands for offering new impetus to the development of trade and economic ties in the Commonwealth. With this aim, during the CIS Summit in Sochi in October 2017, Turkmenistan put forward an initiative to draft and adopt a multilateral document that defines the basic principles and vectors of cooperation of the Commonwealth states in this field.
Noting that the Declaration was drafted and put on the agenda of the current meeting of the Council of Heads of State, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov underlined that its adoption would require the development of new approaches to boosting economic activity in the CIS.
“The strategy of the CIS economic cooperation should take into account the changes, taking place in the global economy today. It is necessary to respond to these trends in a timely manner, take into account the focus, and use the existing competitive advantages to form and promote the CIS economic agenda in the context of global economic processes” emphasized the President of Turkmenistan.
Highlighting such strategic areas as energy, industry, transport and trade, the Turkmen leader expressed confidence that the CIS was able to implement large-scale and long-term projects in these areas.
“The Commonwealth of Independent States, due to its geopolitical and geo-economic positions, should play an initiative role on the continent, take an active part in the development and expansion of trade and economic partnership between the East and the West, Asia and Europe. In this regard, the most important task is the participation of our countries in the implementation of various projects with other states, access to neighboring regions where we have something to offer to our partners in the economic, innovative and technological spheres”, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized.
The President of Turkmenistan proposed to consider a plan of joint actions to enhance economic cooperation in the CIS with a focus on the possible formation and development of energy, industrial, transport and trade corridors connecting the Commonwealth states with world markets at the first meeting of the Economic Council in 2020.
As noted, if this initiative is supported by the Economic Council in the future, we can suggest the Council of the Heads of Government of the CIS to discuss the possibilities of its implementation in specific economic projects. GNP
