State minister visits Turkmenistan to strengthen ties with Bangladesh

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has paid an official bilateral visit to Turkmenistan to strengthen the bilateral relations.

During his visit, he met the First Vice President and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rasit Meredow on Friday, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Both of them discussed the current state of relations between Turkmenistan and Bangladesh and expressed their desire for further strengthening the friendly relations.

In this context, both sides noted the role of high-level visits, as well as the role of increased cooperation between the foreign ministries of the two countries.

Bilateral cooperation issues within the framework of international organizations, primarily the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) were discussed as priority areas for interaction.

Taking this opportunity, the State Minister invited the Turkmenistan foreign minister to participate in the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC member-countries, which will be held on May 5-6 this year in Dhaka.

He hoped that both the parties would soon agree to a date for the VVIP visit of the President of Turkmenistan to Bangladesh.

The parties also discussed issues of cooperation in energy and transport.

In this regard, the Bangladesh side congratulated Turkmenistan on the successful start of the construction of the Afghan section of the TAPI gas pipeline and noted that this important project had the immense geopolitical outcome for all concerned.

In addition, during the talks, issues of cooperation in the fields of economy, investment, agriculture, chemical industry and science were also discussed.