Parliamentary speakers of Central Asian countries, S. Korea agree to hold 2nd meeting in Ashgabat in 2024

ASHGABAT. Sept 22 (Interfax) - The parliamentary speakers of the Central Asian countries and South Korea have agreed to hold a second meeting in Ashgabat in 2024, according to a statement published on the Turkmen Foreign Ministry's website.

A joint declaration stating that the sides reached an agreement to hold a second meeting of their parliamentary speakers in Ashgabat in 2024 was adopted at the first meeting of the Central Asian and Korean speakers held in Seoul on the topic The Development of Future-Oriented Mutually Profitable Relations.

A Turkmen parliamentary delegation, led by Parliamentary Speaker Dunyagozel Gulmanova, attended the first meeting between the countries' parliamentary speakers in Seoul on September 19, 2023. The meeting was attended by the speakers of the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek, and South Korean parliaments.

Gulmanova said that "this forum of parliamentary speakers will give an impetus to the development of parliamentary diplomacy between the Central Asian states and the Republic of Korea." Turkmenistan attaches great importance to cooperation with Korea, which is taking place based on the principles of equal rights and long-term and mutually profitable partnership, she said.

The meeting addressed specific areas of the countries' partnership concerning economic cooperation between the Central Asian states and South Korea, as well as interaction in the sphere of digital transformation.

The priority areas for further regional cooperation include energy, infrastructure, effective water resource management, industrial diversification, finance, education, healthcare, and tourism.