China to help Turkmenistan develop transport, logistics infrastructure

ASHGABAT. Jan 9 (Interfax) - Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Chinese President Xi Jinping called for bilateral cooperation on automobile and railway transport in a joint statement issued following talks in Beijing on January 5-6.

The statement, posted on the Turkmenistan: Golden Age newspaper's website on January 6, called for accelerating the approval of draft agreements between the two countries' governments on international road transport, and noted the need to promote cooperation "in the field of connecting roads and cross-border transport."

The document also calls for increasing the number of flights and the number of container trains on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Turkmenistan-Iran route and international multimodal transport on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan route, as well as continued contacts and interaction within the framework of CAREC, OSJD and other multilateral mechanisms.

"The Chinese side expresses its readiness to assist Turkmenistan in accelerating the construction of transport infrastructure and creating a modern transport and logistics system," the statement said.