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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich, colleagues,

During this state visit by the President of Turkmenistan to our country, we have been discussing a very wide range of issues. I had a very friendly and warm conversation with the President yesterday, and we discussed the main aspects of cooperation between our countries, and also international issues. Today, during our talks behind closed doors, we discussed the main areas in our bilateral cooperation and concluded that it is showing very positive development. Our bilateral trade is growing rapidly, and the results we achieved last year are very good and give us hope for further growth. Whether we include gas or exclude it from the trade figures, the results are very good all the same. If we include gas, and it is probably correct to do so, we arrive at a figure of almost $7 billion. This is a good result.

We have already talked about cooperation in the fuel and energy sector today, and I hope we will continue these discussions now. As partners of Turkmenistani companies, Russian companies – Gazprom and others – are ready to continue cooperation in all different areas relating to the common agreements we already have, and the specific agreements on individual projects that we will probably discuss today.

We have good plans for cooperation in the electricity sector. We just discussed work together in the transport sector, which is also a very promising area for cooperation. I think that if we can get projects underway in these sectors, our ties will become even closer.

Our Turkmenistani colleagues are buyers of Russian industrial goods, in particular vehicles produced by KamAZ. This is also a good area for cooperation. KamAZ has made large deliveries of vehicles of late, and this cooperation is continuing this year. This also opens up good prospects, especially given the crisis on the market at the moment, which obliges us to look for all possible solutions to the problems we encounter.

There are also a number of good ideas for cooperation in the telecommunications and agriculture sectors. The memorandum that our respective agriculture ministries will sign today creates good opportunities for working together. We look forward to seeing our friends from Turkmenistan at the World Grain Summit, which will take place in St Petersburg at the start of June this year, and we also plan to take part in the CIS Agricultural Production Forum in Ashgabat. I am sure that these events will give new substance to our cooperation in this sector.

Work together in the education sector is a very important part of our cooperation today. I want to specially thank you, Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich, for giving the education issue so much attention. I think that the documents we will sign today, and the opening of a branch of the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas [in Ashgabat], which has already taken place, are evidence of the good conditions for this cooperation and good ideas in this area. We are also increasing the number of state scholarships for students from Turkmenistan. Today, we will sign an agreement on reciprocal recognition of diplomas, and certification of scientific workers. Our humanitarian cooperation is gathering pace, and we are very pleased to see this.

Once again, I want to say that in my view, this visit by such a high-level delegation from Turkmenistan should result in the conclusion of an important package of agreements that mark a real stride forward in our cooperation, and I hope that we will see this take place following our talks in expanded format.

Once more, I welcome Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich and our esteemed guests from Turkmenistan to Moscow.