At the summit of the presidents of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the Turkmen side proposed to consider the prospects for strategic partnership in the gas industry. This was stated by the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov at a briefing of foreign ministers of three countries, held on Friday following the results of the first summit of the presidents of the three countries in Ashgabat.

Having noted the energy of an important area of cooperation between the three countries, Rashid Meredov emphasized that Turkmenistan attaches great importance to cooperation in the gas sector.

Turkmenistan has huge natural gas resources and diversification of gas exports, while maintaining a balance of the interests of the producer, transitor and consumer of energy are the basic principles for us in the implementation of international energy projects, the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan noted.“It is in this context that the Turkmen side has now proposed to consider the prospects for strategic partnership in the gas industry between Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,” R. Meredov said.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan emphasized that at present, on behalf of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, large-scale work is underway to develop the 3rd and 4th stages of the world’s largest natural gas field “Galkynysh”.In this regard, in the coming years, Turkmenistan is planned to increase the volume of natural gas production by an additional 60 billion cubic meters, R. Meredov said, adding that “this will provide us with the opportunity to fully meet both the growing domestic needs in natural gas, and increase the volume of supplies of Turkmen natural gas abroad.

At the same time, the unconditional priority will be the supply of Turkmen gas to its closest neighbors – Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, - the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan said.