Prime Minister meets Vice Premier of Turkmenistan

Islamabad, August 07, 2014 (PPI-OT): Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif held a meeting with Mr. Rashid Meredov, Vice-Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. Minister for Finance, Mr. Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and Advisor to PM on National Security, Mr. Sartaj Aziz also attended the meeting.

The Prime Minister said that Pakistan wants to transform its ties with Turkmenistan into strong economic partnerships. “The focus of our foreign policy is on peace for development and the main thrust of our engagement with Central Asia is on trade, investment, energy, connectivity and culture,” he added.

The Prime Minister said that Pakistan attaches high priority to the timely completion of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. The project envisages transportation of 30 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas annually to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

He said this project is part of energy security plan of the Government of Pakistan. “We are glad that the Operations Agreement has been signed and all parties have showed their resolve to complete the project by target date (i.e. 2017),” the Prime Minister added.

Both sides expressed the hope to finalize export of 1000 MW of Turkmen electricity to Pakistan as soon as possible. The Prime Minister expressed gratitude on President Berdimuhammedov’s cordial invitation to him for visiting Turkmenistan and said that he hoped to undertake a visit later this year.

For more information, contact:
Haji Ahmed Malik
Principal Information Officer
Press Information Department (PID)
Tel: +92-51-9252323 and +92-51-9252324
Fax: +92-51-9252325 and +92-51-9252326
Email: piopid@gmail.com