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President Dmitry Medvedev: Dear Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich!

Dear colleagues, friends!

You have provided us with a very detailed and thorough analysis of our current relationship. I would like to add a few details to fill in the overall picture.

First and foremost, of course, I would like to thank you once again for the invitation to come to friendly Turkmenistan, to negotiate, to get to know each other and to discuss the main issues on our agenda. We have already begun to do so, and now we can move to an expanded format and continue the debate.

The agenda for our current relations is very ambitious. You cited some figures, to which I want to add the following. As you suggest, there has recently been a qualitative change in our relations, and the growth in trade has lasted not only throughout 2007 but also into this year. In fact trade more than doubled during this period, increasing by 120 percent. This is impressive and we are of course looking forward to seeing this growth continue. There is another topic that defines the high level of our relationship, namely forums for coordinating various endeavours, such as the Intergovernmental Commission. Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich, you just talked about this, and I would like to add that a great deal of work has been done on this and will be actively pursued further. On 16 June, Viktor Alexeyevich Zubkov was appointed Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Commission on the Russian side. He previously served as Prime Minister. This committee will meet for the third time in August in Ashgabat.

We talked quite a bit about work on major projects related to the supply of gas. This work is ongoing, and we're also talking about the early implementation of agreements on the construction of the Caspian gas pipeline and the development of gas transmission capacities in Central Asia. This is also extremely important and useful for us in defining our spheres of cooperation.

In the transport sphere, a very important area for us, we need to expedite the preparation of an agreement to organise a direct rail-ferry service via the port of Astrakhan. It is a water transport hub for Makhachkala and Turkmenbashi. This work will continue, as will the general work on rail transport, which we were just discussing in our private talks.

Our business relations are flourishing. The composition of the delegation that came to visit is a perfect illustration of this: it was a very impressive delegation, composed of a large number of entrepreneurs whose activities vividly demonstrate the benefits of our cooperation and will facilitate the economic development of Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation. We will continue to encourage this work, and look forward to making it that much more intensive. You have already talked about a number of interesting issues in the field of electricity, and we will be coming back to this theme and taking it up in earnest.

We are ready to establish full cooperation in agriculture. We are very pleased with this area of cooperation, and your recent visit to Kazan gave it a new impetus. We see this too as a good sign, and tomorrow you will actually be taking part in the opening of some new facilities. This is a very welcome development.

Russian business – Itera, Stroytransgaz, Soyuzneftegaz, Tatneft and Gazprom — is involved in a range of social programmes.

Another excellent area of cooperation is agricultural products and affairs. We are looking forward to the forum for farmers of CIS countries, which will be taking place in Ashgabat next year. We will be delighted to take part in this initiative. It has our full support, as we said during our encounter in St Petersburg.

In addition our regional cooperation is developing very well. The leaders of various regions are with us today: Tatarstan, the Astrakhan region, St Petersburg and others. I believe that we must continue to develop these ties. This is useful, because it creates new economic opportunities and gives people a chance to get to know each other. This is good for the development of friendly ties between our countries.

You have already talked about our scientific and educational links. We plan to increase the number of state scholarships for students from Turkmenistan. I hope that today we can resolve all matters related to an agreement on cooperation in education.

Another element is the establishment of a Turkmenistan campus for the I. M. Gubkin State University of Oil and Gas. This is very important for the future of our countries and will help produce talented new specialists who will oversee these basic areas in our cooperation: gas, engineering infrastructure, electricity, transportation construction and other areas of cooperation. This is why we consider the scientific and educational links at the moment to be a priority. And this seems to me to fully coincide with your expectations.

Our cultural projects have also gone well recently. Your exceptional dedication is responsible for this. We have agreed that 2009–2010 will be the national years of Russia and Turkmenistan. This is a very good and important component of our joint work.

We have discussed international issues with you. On the basis of our ideas about how we can build a relationship, and based on our respect for the neutrality of Turkmenistan, we have agreed to coordinate our efforts in adjacent regions and in international policy in general. By this I mean that our current positions on major issues in international relations are either close or identical.

In my opinion, the treaty and juridical basis of our relations has become significantly better. In the near future, immediately after the talks in an enlarged format, we will be making a direct contribution to this. We will be signing an excellent collection of documents, an unprecedentedly comprehensive one even for our relations. And of course we are ready to further strengthen our contractual and legal ties. In effect we are doing this when we sign new interstate agreements.

Once again, I would like to thank you for the invitation. We look forward to further progress on all fronts.