Turkmenistan, Russia continue to be strategic partners.

ASHKHABAD, September 30 (Itar-Tass) - Turkmenistan maintains the
strategic character of its partnership with Russia, although the global
economic crisis hampered the pace of the implementation of cooperation
projects, including the joint project of the building of the near-Caspian
gas pipeline, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said at a
briefing here on Thursday, which was devoted to his participation in the
work of the 65th U.N. General Assembly session.
Commenting on the relations with Russia, the Turkmen president
stressed the importance of the implementation of the agreement on the
expansion of strategic cooperation in power engineering and machine
building, which was signed during the visit of President Dmitry Medvedev
to Ashkhabad in December 2009.
Commenting on the Turkmen gas price, Berdymukhamedov said that
"Turkmenistan and the gas importers - Iran, China and Russia - should work
out the price formula, which would be in line with the conditions of the
European market and should be acceptable both for the exporter and the
importers."
He pointed to the effective measures, taken in Turkmenistan within the
framework of the overall diversification of the national economy. "We did
not export hydrocarbons for nine months, and despite this fact, the
country's revenues grew by two-fold during that period," he said.
At the same time, the Turkmen president reminded that "the prospected
gas reserves will be enough for decades to come." According to his
information, they amount to 24,600 billion cubic metres. "Gas production
will reach 230 billion cubic metres by 2030, and 180 billion cubic metres
will be exported," he said.