F.P. Report
ASHGABAT: Since December 2016 when Shavkat Mirziyoyev elected as President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, he has invigorated regional cooperation in Central Asian region as per his priority for Central Asia under the foreign policy vision.
Uzbekistan borders all other Central Asian Republics including Afghanistan therefore it becomes a responsibility to play an active role in forging close regional cooperation. Uzbekistan under the visionary leadership of Shavkat Mirziyoyev is fulfilling this responsibility.
Mirziyoyev successfully revived the “Consultative Forum” of the five Central Asian leaders for regular discussion on issues of security and development within Central Asia. Due to the dynamic Uzbek leadership, Central Asian Republics have enhanced intra-regional trade and practical cooperation on border crossings through coordinated and harmonized approach.
Consequently constructive approaches have been adopted to address the issues of regional security and development from a regional perspective. In this regard the President of Uzbekistan is on official visit to Turkmenistan on October 20 and 21, 2022 to give new impetus to bilateral relations and promote common approaches within the region.
It is worth mentioning here that Mirziyoyev’s first official visit abroad was to Turkmenistan in March 2017 when the two leaders of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on March 7, traveled to Lebap province, which makes up a significant portion of the two countries’ border, to attend the inauguration of a railway and road bridge across the Amu-Darya river.
It shows Mirziyoyev’s warmth and respect for Turkmenistan which is equally reciprocate by his counterpart Serdar Berdimuhamedov and relations between both countries are elevated to the level of strategic partnership.
A wide range of co-operation between the two countries Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan covering areas such as border trade and interregional cooperation, transportation, traffic, agriculture, tourism, common water use, trade, science-technical, chemistry, industry, foreign affairs, customs, railroads, justice, youth policies and publishing already flourishing.
Both the leaders will sign a large number of agreements to further expand the strategic bilateral relationship and enhance trade and economic partnership. Shavkat Mirziyoyev will also inaugurate Tashkent Park in Ashgabat as earlier did the Turkmen President by inaugurating Ashgabat Park in Tashkent.
Trade and economic cooperation have also been influenced by the leader-to-leader relations between the two countries. Recent trade data 2 shows that slightly over 200 million dollars exchanged hands between the two countries in 2016. That figure increased by 67.6% to 902 million dollars by the end of 2021.
Comparatively, the trade volume between the two countries during January and May of 2022 was 322.6 million dollars, an increase of 1.2% over the same period in 2021. A joint project of creating border trade zones will also be expedited to benefit the people of the two brotherly countries. Cooperation in transportation is of critical importance to both the countries.
The integration of the two countries’ communication systems makes it possible to split-second access to the markets of third countries and regions. In particular, the parties are working together to maximize the potential of the Uzbekistan- Turkmenistan-Caspian Sea-Caucasus transport route.
This corridor has been designed the provide access to Georgia and Turkey’s Black Sea ports as well as the European Union (EU) markets. Relatively through this, the volume of goods transported between the two countries by land and rail is increasing from day to day.
To give an instance, in 2021, international freight shipments between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan was 1.7 million tons by rail and 0.3 million tons by road and amounting to about 2 million tons by 18% increase in 2020.
Uzbekistan has shown full support to the TAPI Project and similarly Turkmenistan fully supports the Trans-Afghan Railway line to link Termiz with Peshawar.
In fact all the Central Asian countries view these Regional Integration Arrangements from a regional perspective which will benefit all the Central Asian Republics including Afghanistan. Tashkent and Ashgabat are intensively making an effort to strengthen regional co-operation.
The parties believe the implementation of major infrastructure projects will assist Afghanistan to achieve its economic integration and hence regional security will be enhanced through shared prosperity. Thus the leaders of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are likely to seek to strengthen practical co-operation that provides mutual benefit at the bilateral and regional level.
Both the countries are important partners in China-Central Asia gas pipeline system by feeding gas to Lines A, B and C. So the current visit is yet another milestone in achieving close brotherly relations between two neighbors.
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