Turkmen Minister of Foreign Affairs Reshat Meredov paid an official visit to Kazakhstan

---

Turkmen Minister of Foreign Affairs Reshat Meredov paid an official visit to Kazakhstan.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Murat Nurleu said that the approach of the Central Asian countries is a "necessity of time."

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nurtleu met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, who traveled to Kazakhstan for official contacts.

During the meeting, which took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Astana, the parties discussed cooperation in the political, trade, economic, transport, energy, cultural and humanitarian spheres of Kazakh-Turkmen relations.

In his statement to the press after the meeting, Kazakh Foreign Minister Nurtleu said that during bilateral and inter-delegation meetings with his Turkmen counterpart Meredov, they identified new areas of cooperation in relations between the two countries, and said: "The rapprochement of the Central Asian countries is a necessity of our time."

Noting that over the past 5 years, the volume of bilateral trade has increased 4 times, and last year it increased by 28 percent to $ 563 million, Nurtleu said: "We are striving to increase bilateral trade to $ 1 billion in the near future."

In the field of transportation, Nurtleu stated that they agreed to comprehensively develop the potential of the railway line along the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran route, and at the same time agreed to increase the volume of cargo transportation between the ports of Aktau and Turkmenbashi on the Caspian Sea.

According to the statement of the President of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Meredov was also received by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.