President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov participated in the CIS Summit which was held in the Tajik capital on October 5. The Turkmen leader had arrived to Dushanbe on an official visit on October 4.

President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov had the unofficial meetings with the Presidents of the CIS states within the framework of the CIS Summit. During the meeting with RF President Vladimir Putin the Turkmen leader exchanged views on the current issues of bilateral co-operation. Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov had the short conversations on the particular aspects of bilateral collaboration with President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiev, President of Belarus Aleksander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev, President of Georgia Mikhael Saakashvili, President of Armenia Robert Kacharian and President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin. The mutual interest in intensification of the interstate dialogue was reaffirmed during the informal bilateral talks.

The heads of the CIS states approved the agenda of the Dushanbe Summit at the restricted meeting at the Ceremonial Hall of the Somon Palace. Then the forum was held in the enlarged representation in the Cupola Hall.

The CIS Summit agenda included 20 issues related to elaboration of the CIS development conception, enhancement of co-operation in the economic and humanitarian spheres and the organisational issues. The emphasis was put on the issues related to collective security, control of crime and terrorism, co-operation in migration and maintenance of law and order in the CIS territory.

The important documents including the CIS Development Conception and the Action Plan to the Conception were adopted at the Summit. The participants of the international forum unanimously noted the success of the Dushanbe Summit and agreed that the next CIS Summit would be held in Bishkek in September 2008.

Turkmenistan is an associated member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The initiative put forward by the first President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov and based on Turkmenistan’s international commitments evolving from the status of permanent neutrality was unanimously supported and approved by the heads of the CIS at the 2005 Summit in Kazan and set forth in the relevant documents. Reaffirming Turkmenistan’s adherence to the political course President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov declared that Turkmenistan would continue to take an active part in the CIS as an associated member through developing fruitful co-operation in both bilateral and multilateral formats.