Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, Moscow, December 4, 2023

Mr Meredov,

I am happy to welcome you on another multilateral occasion. Tomorrow we will hold a meeting of the Caspian states’ foreign ministers. Today is a good opportunity to see how our bilateral processes are progressing under the decisions of the presidents of Russia and Turkmenistan.

We highly appreciate our strategic partnership. The Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation is very dynamic. Preparations are underway for the next meeting. A business forum will be dedicated to the meeting. This is also useful.

We are committed to full cooperation in implementing cultural and educational projects. I will highlight one of our flagship projects – the establishment of Russian-Turkmen University and the construction of a new building for the State Russian Drama Theatre. An additional building for the Pushkin School is under construction. We are sincerely grateful to our Turkmen friends for their attention to this particular area and to cultural and educational exchanges. We see and acknowledge your interest in the Russian language.

Today we have a good opportunity to talk about our interaction on international platforms, and we interact on many of them. Our positions are close and coincide in a number of cases. This includes the UN, the Caspian Five, and other formats, including the movement of friends of neutrality, promoted by Ashgabat. On December 11, you will hold the next meeting of the Group of Friends of Neutrality. We will definitely be properly represented there.

The agenda is rich. Happy to see you.