Turkmen, Uzbek presidents support new Afghan settlement mechanisms.

20/10 Tass 32

ASHGABAT, October 20 (Itar-Tass) - The Presidents of Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Islam Karimov, call for the
"creation of new efficient mechanisms for intensification of the
negotiating process on the settlement of the Afghan crisis with the
participation of international structures and states neighbouring on
Afghanistan." This common view was expressed by the two presidents in a
joint statement on the results of their talks here. The Uzbek leader is in
Turkmenistan on an official visit.
"We have common and close positions practically on all the discussed
issues," the Uzbekistani president stated at a briefing that was shown on
the national television on Wednesday. "Our positions on issues of the use
of water and energy resources are identical," Karimov noted.
Water and energy-related problems in Central Asia, the statement says,
should be considered based on the generally recognised norms and
principles of international law, with due regard for the interests of all
countries of the region and with active participation of the international
community represented by the United Nations and other authoritative
international organisations.
According to Berdymukhamedov, priority fields of Turkmen-Uzbek
economic partnership are such spheres as communications, transport, routes
of communication, the textile and chemical industry, production of
construction materials, the agrarian sector. "The two states'
participation in the construction of the largest interregional gas
pipeline on the route Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China that was
launched in December 2009, has given the strategic nature to Turkmen-Uzbek
partnership," the Turkmenistani president noted.
On the talks' results the parties signed the Cooperation Programme
between the governments of the two countries in the culture-humanitarian
sphere for 2011-2013. Noting the successful implementation of the previous
programme of the kind, the presidents stressed major significance of the
Turkmen-Uzbek Friendship Festival in the Turkmen city of Dashoguz that is
underway these days on the initiative of the president of Turkmenistan.
According to the government of Turkmenistan, the humanitarian dialogue
based on age-old cultural and spiritual traditions, which bind the two
peoples from ancient times and are maintained in a worthy manner, in the
contemporary epoch serves as an essential component of interstate
relations. A real embodiment of these good, constructive traditions is the
Festival of Turkmen-Uzbek Friendship taking place in Dashoguz Velayat. A
big delegation from fraternal Uzbekistan consisting of best music and
theatre groups, renowned workers of culture and art arrived in
Turkmenistan to participate in this large-scale cultural action. The
Festival of Friendship, the initiative of which was put forward by the
Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov during the top level talks last
December in the framework of the official visit of the President of the
Republic of Uzbekistan and supported by Islam Karimov is a new bright page
in the history of Turkmen-Uzbek partnership.
-0-ezh/kud