Turkmen transit – Newspaper Kommersant No. 10 (7455) dated 01/20/2023
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Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived on a working visit to Ashgabat on Thursday, where, within the framework of the Turkmen-Russian forum, he outlined the main areas of bilateral cooperation, in particular, the expansion of trade, which is now estimated at $1 billion. For this, emphasis is placed on both Moscow and Ashgabat plan to do on the development of logistics, taking into account the transit potential of Turkmenistan. In particular, the authorities are preparing to bring the eastern route of the North-South transport corridor to full capacity, as well as to diversify economic cooperation through new directions and industrial cooperation.
The visits of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to the countries of the post-Soviet space, as shown by the trip to Turkmenistan that began on Thursday and last year’s visits to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, have a stable format – apparently, in order to focus business attention on economic cooperation with Russia, the bilateral agenda at the level of heads of government is accompanied their participation in intercountry forums. This scenario was also chosen on January 19: having arrived in Ashgabat, Mikhail Mishustin, together with Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, spoke at the plenary session of the Turkmen-Russian business forum.
On Friday, the program will be more official: a conversation with the chairman of the upper house of parliament, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and a face-to-face meeting with the president and prime minister of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, are planned.
As Mikhail Mishustin noted, there are new opportunities in building up cooperation between Moscow and Ashgabat in the current “non-standard conditions”: Turkmen business can take some “vacated” niches in the Russian market due to the withdrawal of Western companies (to simplify this process, the Russian prime minister assured, Russian authorities are ready to ease customs control and visa regime for business representatives from Turkmenistan). According to Aleksey Gruzdev, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Russian companies are very interested in the Turkmen market. According to the Ministry of Economy, Russian business is now participating in 20 investment projects in Turkmenistan worth about $3.5 billion.
However, the trade turnover between the two countries so far looks rather modest – according to Mikhail Mishustin, about $1 billion (at the end of 2021, $856 million), but “the potential is much higher.”
The main area of work for Moscow and Ashgabat is energy, in connection with which it has already been said about the need to diversify cooperation, the Russian prime minister mentioned on Thursday the agro-industrial complex and the textile industry as goals. To increase the volume of mutual trade, Minister of Economy Maxim Reshetnikov noted, it is also necessary to develop transport and logistics – the key for them is the eastern route of the North-South international transport corridor. The test launch of traffic on it showed that cargo is delivered three days faster than the traditional sea route. Now the project is being brought to full capacity. The importance of this direction was also mentioned on January 19 in connection with the transit capabilities of Turkmenistan – according to Rashid Meredov, transit through the country has tripled, without specifying, however, the volumes.
The Russian Federation is interested in involving Turkmenistan in multilateral formats, in particular the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Representatives of the Turkmen authorities have been repeatedly invited to the meetings of the “five” as guests – according to the Russian prime minister, Moscow sees Ashgabat’s interest in “studying cooperation with the EAEU” and believes that it “will have a positive impact on the country’s economy and will be useful for everyone countries of the five. As Maxim Reshetnikov clarified, Turkmenistan could receive observer status in the EAEU (now Uzbekistan, Moldova and Cuba act in this capacity). However, such statements by the Russian side are not accompanied by public statements by Ashgabat.
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