Turkmenistan Russia's strategic partner: Putin

Moscow, May 11 (UNI) Russian President Vladimir Putin today said Turkmenistan was a strategic partner of Russia at the talks with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov in Ashgabat, the capital of oil-and-gas-rich Turkmenistan..

''Of course, in this connection, we will speak first of all about energy,'' he said.

He stressed that the two countries had ''big plans for joint work, in the field adding Russia and Turkmenistan ''have to step up activities of the Inter-Governmental commission that can show most promising areas of our cooperation apart from energy.'' Putin and Berdymukhammedov expressed interest in particular, in the further development of large-scale Russian and Turkmen partnership in the oil and gas industry and energy transportation.

"The Presidents attach priority attention to the gradual implementation of a Russian-Turkmen agreement on gas cooperation signed on April 10, 2003, which envisages long-range gas deliveries from Turkmenistan to Russia, as well as the implementation of various projects in the industry," Interfax news agency reported quoting a joint statement issued after the talks.

Putin is in the former Soviet Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan in a bid to safeguard Russian control of the ex-Soviet state's natural gas exports.

Putin and Berdymukhammedov will be joined tomorrow by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in tripartite talks on oil and gas export.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin confirmed that the three Presidents would discuss Caspian gas supplies.

This is Putin's second meeting with Berdymukhammedov since he became President of Turkmenistan in February.

UNI