Turkmen president: C. Asian states' transport, communication ties important

ASHGABAT. Aug 12 (Interfax) - The Central Asian countries have all the prerequisites to become an element of major sustainable routes as part of the economic partnership along the North-South and East-West corridors, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov said.

"Cooperation in transport and communications is of key value in this respect," Berdimuhamedov said at the sixth consultative meeting of the Central Asian countries' heads. The text of his speech was published in the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper on Saturday.

"This sector is developing rapidly today, competition is growing, active measures are underway to create new transport and transit corridors in Eurasia. Integrating our region into these processes in a timely and effective manner, also using its geographical, logistics and other advantages, should be, I believe, the common objective of the Central Asian states in the very near future," he said.

"As for the transport segment, our focus here is on routes to Europe from China and to the Middle East via Central Asia. I am speaking about the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey transit corridors accessing Europe, as well as the China-Tajikistan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran corridor and further on to the Middle East," he said.

"We attach special importance to the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Persian Gulf cargo transport route," Berdimuhamedov said. "In this context, we see combining the resource, economic and transport capabilities of Central Asia, India and Pakistan [and] the two subcontinents' cohesion and access to the world ocean as promising," he said.

"Here I should note the great potential for transport cooperation between the Central Asian countries and Afghanistan," he said.

"Another important combined sea and land route is the Central Asia-Caspian Sea-Black Sea corridor," he said.

Berdimuhamedov also said he is confident that "we will be able to implement large-scale transport projects along this route through joint efforts," inviting countries to start putting these objectives into practice as soon as possible.