Turkmen, Afghan presidents to discuss gas pipeline project.

ASHGABAT, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - Presidents Gurbanguly
Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan have
agreed to meet within the framework of the forthcoming 65th session of the
United Nations General Assembly to discuss matters concerning the
construction of a transnational Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
gas trunkline in detail. The large-scale energy project was the main theme
during Monday's telephone conversation between the two Heads of State, the
Turkmen presidential press service reports.
Berdymukhamedov emphasized, "Our country, as no one else, is
interested in a sustainable development of neighbouring Afghanistan, to
which it intends to continue to give every kind of support in
consolidating the foundations of peaceful life and economic wellbeing".
The Turkmen President invited his Afghan counterpart to visit Turkmenistan
at his convenience.
The process of negotiations on the trans-Afghan gas pipeline has been
going on for more than 15 years now. In 2005, the Asian Development Bank
financed the elaboration of feasibility study and cost analysis of the
project, according to which the pipeline is to be 1,680 kilometres long,
stretching from the gas delivery point in Turkmenistan -- the Dovletabad
gasfield -- to the populated area of Fazilka in India at the border with
Pakistan. Construction cost is estimated at $3,300 million and its
carrying capacity is to be 33,000 million cubic metres of gas a year. A
steering committee at the level of the chiefs of the fuel-and-energy
sectors of the four countries was set up for the development of the
project. The latest session of the committee was held in 2008.

.TEAM int'l conf on shipbuilding to open in Vladivostok Tue.

VLADIVOSTOK, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - A TEAM-2010 international
conference workshop on shipbuilding opens here on Tuesday. It will be
attended by about 200 scientists, shipbuilders and ship repairers of
Australia, Iran, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Taiwan, Turkey,
and Japan. Russia will be represented by specialists from St Petersburg,
Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Vladivostok, and Nakhodka.
Officials of the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of
Industry and Trade, the Far Eastern center for shipbuilding and repairs,
as well as the administration of the Primorsky (maritime) Territory will
take part in the forum's work, said an official in the press service of
the Maritime State University, which is playing host to the conference
workshop.
The specialists are to consider a number of practical matters
concerning the theory and practice of shipbuilding and are to tour the
construction site of a new shipyard at the Zvezda (star) plant in the city
of Bolshoi Kamen.
The TEAM conference workshop on shipbuilding is the best known
international shipbuilders' forum in the Asia-Pacific Region. Beginning
from 1987, TEAM has been held every year in one of Pacific Rim countries
-- in Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Russia.
The peculiarity of the conference workshop is that its proceedings are
conducted only in English which is the official international language of
the seamen. The participation of the authors of articles and reports in
the forum in person is yet another special feature of the conference.

.RF, Poland CGS to discuss mil coop'n prospects Tuesday.

MOSCOW, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - General of the Army Nikolai Makarov,
Chief of the General Staff (CGS) of Russia's Armed Forces, is to visit
Poland on Tuesday, an official at the Russian Defence Ministry's
press-service and information directorate has told Itar-Tass.
The Ministry official pointed out, "On the day of his arrival in
Warsaw, the Russian military leader will hold talks with General
Mieczyslaw Cieniuch, the CGS of the Polish Army, and meet with Stanislaw
Koziej, head of Poland's National Security Bureau. The sides are to
discuss the state of and prospects for Russo-Polish military cooperation,
as well as a number of international and European security problems of
current concern".
On the same day in Warsaw, the Russian military delegation will lay
wreaths at the Unknown Soldier's Tomb, and at the memorial to the Soviet
servicemen who fell for the liberation of Poland from Nazi invaders, and
visit the Powazki military cemetery to honour the memory of General
Frantisek Gongora -- former CGS of the Polish Army, who died in the air
crash near Smolensk on April 10, this year. At that time, all those who
were on board the Polish airliner, among them President Lech Kaczynski,
died in the crash.
On August 26, General Makarov is also to visit the Krakow quarters of
the 16th paratroop battalion to get acquainted with the arrangements for
combat training of personnel, the training facilities, housing
accommodation, and infrastructure of the battalion.
The sides do not plan to sign any documents. The visit will end on
August 25, the Russian Defence Ministry official said.
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