On May 30, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov paid a working visit to Kazakhstan, where he took part in the First Summit in the Central Asia-Italy format, held in Astana.

Speaking at the Summit, Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted Turkmenistan's interest in expanding multifaceted mutually beneficial cooperation in this format.

"I am convinced that our meeting will make a significant contribution to the intensification of mutually beneficial partnership between the Central Asian states and Italy. Turkmenistan is interested in expanding multifaceted cooperation within the framework of this promising format and is ready to contribute to its development," said the President of Turkmenistan, whose speech was published in the central media of our country.

"Among the most pressing vectors of intraregional cooperation today, we can highlight interaction in the areas of politics and security, economics, transport, climate, and water resources," the head of Turkmenistan said. "Key topics in the field of peacebuilding, developing a culture of political dialogue, strengthening trusting relations between the states of the planet will be considered within the framework of the International Forum of Peace and Trust, which will be held on December 12 in Ashgabat," Serdar Berdimuhamedov said and invited all the heads of state and government present to take part in this forum.

Among the important areas of cooperation in the economic sphere, the President highlighted energy, transport, industry, the financial and private sectors, as well as new areas such as digitalization, green technologies and artificial intelligence.

Serdar Berdimuhamedov also stated Ashgabat's interest in supplying Turkmen gas to the European market.

"Turkmenistan, possessing colossal reserves of natural gas, is implementing a policy of diversifying its supply routes to international markets. In this regard, we attach great importance to projects aimed at exporting Turkmen gas to Europe," the President said. The head of Turkmenistan also noted the readiness to establish cooperation with Italy in hydrogen energy. "Another promising area of ​​joint work is hydrogen energy. As is known, in the coming decades, natural gas will remain the dominant source of hydrogen production. And here we are ready for mutually beneficial cooperation with Italian partners," said Serdar Berdimuhamedov.

Speaking about transport interconnectivity, the President of Turkmenistan noted that "at the current stage of transformation of world transport routes, we are interested in participating in new partnership configurations along the Asia-Europe trajectory. In this context, one of the promising European projects is the "Middle Corridor" passing through the countries of Central Asia and the Caspian region." The head of Turkmenistan named ecology and climate as another relevant area of ​​cooperation. "Increasing the energy efficiency of existing industrial capacities, rational water use in the region, the introduction of "green" and resource-saving technologies can become priority areas of cooperation within the framework of the "Central Asia-Italy" format," the President said. In this context, Serdar Berdimuhamedov outlined an initiative to create a UN Regional Centre for Climate Change Technologies in Central Asia in Ashgabat.