Yuri Aronsky, economist, scientist, chairman of the Union of Economists of Turkmenistan (UET), representative of the Coordinating Council of the International Union of Economists, as well as an expert of CentralAsia.news, told about the development of interstate relations between Turkmenistan and Russia.
A bridge of friendship and cooperation
Since gaining independence in 1991, relations between Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation have always been of a strategic nature. Diplomatic relations between the states were established on April 8, 1992. The basic document is the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation of April 23, 2002, it replaced a similar Treaty of July 31, 1992. In total, more than 170 agreements have been signed between Russia and Turkmenistan, covering all spheres of interaction.
Russian-Turkmen relations are based on the principle of strategic partnership, which is enshrined in the bilateral Agreement on expanding strategic cooperation in the field of energy and mechanical engineering of December 22, 2009 and the interstate Strategic Partnership Agreement signed on October 2, 2017 in Ashgabat, which entered into force in August 2018 of the year.
High level dialogue strategy
To confirm the importance and high level of development of interstate relations, we will quote from the speeches of the leaders of the two countries during the high-level dialogue on October 2, 2017, when the official visit of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to Turkmenistan took place.
As President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted: «Relations between Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation are based on a solid foundation of good-neighborliness, equality and mutual respect. They are built on clear and understandable principles, awareness of the enormous bilateral potential in maintaining peace and security, developing trade, economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian interaction. Turkmen-Russian cooperation has a strategic nature, it is not subject to external conjuncture, it is an important factor of stability and sustainability of processes both in the region and around the world».
And Russian President Vladimir Putin added that «Russia is one of the leading trade and economic partners of Turkmenistan. Inter-parliamentary ties are developing, and of course, great importance is attached to economic cooperation».
The partnership is developing
Indeed, all the past years since gaining independence, Russia has been one of the leading economic partners of Turkmenistan. And in the context of the global crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Turkmenistan has become one of the few countries with which Russia’s trade turnover in 2020 not only did not fall, but grew by another 40%, and reached 1 billion dollars.
Turkmenistan sells agricultural products, oil and oil products, natural gas to Russia, and primarily buys machinery, mechanisms and other industrial and technical goods.
