On Thursday, 30 November 2023, Romanian Ambassador to Turkmenistan Ion Naval hosted a reception in Ashgabat to commemorate Romania’s National Day. The event was graced by the presence of Begench Gochmollayev, the Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations of Turkmenistan, as a honorary guest from the Turkmen Government.
In his welcoming remarks to the gathering, Ambassador Naval highlighted the current state of Turkmen-Romanian relations, emphasizing the strong ties of friendship and cooperation that exist between the two nations.
“Turkmenistan is Romania’s key partner in Central Asia, and the two countries have established strong and mutually beneficial relations in various fields. Our bilateral relations have developed and strengthened over the past 30 years in a wide range of areas, from political dialogue to cultural ties and contacts between people, and further in the field of transport and communications, water resources management. In this regard, Romania remains committed to further expanding sectoral cooperation and using the results achieved so far,” the envoy said.
The diplomat named the Black Sea-Caspian Sea International Transport Route as one of the relevant projects implemented by the two countries. This is a bilateral Romanian-Turkmen initiative, which is being promoted in the format of four countries, uniting Turkmenistan, Romania, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
“It involves the creation of a multi-modal transport route, a 2,500 km long sea/road/rail link between Europe and Central Asia, using the shortest geographical corridor connecting the two regions,” Naval said.
According to the Ambassador, during the bilateral meeting between Romanian Foreign Minister Ms. Luminica Okobescu and her Turkmen counterpart Mr. Rashid Meredov, which took place at the end of October 2023, it was decided to take concrete steps in the next period in such areas as trade, investment, energy, transport, culture, education, which They will contribute to the expansion and further deepening of the Romanian-Turkmen bilateral cooperation.
Touching upon the topic of humanitarian cooperation, the Ambassador recalled that in May 2023, a new Program of cooperation between the Ministries of Education of Romania and Turkmenistan was signed in Ashgabat.
“Thanks to the new program, the Romanian side has significantly increased the number of scholarships provided to Turkmen youth – 50 for bachelor’s, 50 for masters and 5 for doctoral students,” the diplomat said.
He also noted the growing number of young Turkmen citizens who choose Romania as a field of study, and not only oil and gas engineering, which is already a traditional field, but also medicine, biology and computer science.
“We welcome and encourage this trend of diversification, as Romania offers opportunities and excellent advantages, given the outstanding academic education and modern educational programs, as well as the technical and scientific capabilities of the latest generation. I welcome the presence in this hall of young Turkmen who have already completed their studies in Romania and are now engaged in the development of their country!”, Naval added.
He stressed the importance of Romania’s accession to the EU, thanks to which “the EU is present today on the coasts of the Black Sea and is closer to the countries of the Caspian Sea and Central Asia regions.”
According to the diplomat, “this is a positive development that creates additional opportunities to strengthen and expand relations in many areas with these states, at the bilateral and multilateral levels, in order to build new bridges of friendship and cooperation”.
“Romania is actively promoting the development of this approach in relations with these states, including Turkmenistan, at the bilateral level and within the framework of the EU Strategy for Central Asia,” stressed Ambassador Ion Naval. ///nCa, 1 December 2023 [photo credit – social nets of Embassy of Romania to Turkmenistan]