Today, as part of the ongoing official visit to the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As it’s known, the relations between Turkmenistan and Russia have the character of in-depth strategic cooperation, built on a long-term basis, on the unshakable principles of equality, trust and mutual respect.

...Today in the afternoon, the motorcade of the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh arrived at the Kremlin Palace, where the Hero-Arkadag was warmly welcomed by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

During the conversation the parties discussed a wide range of topical issues of Turkmen-Russian cooperation, which is successfully developing today in a wide range of areas.

Welcoming the distinguished guest, President Vladimir Putin noted that he was very glad to see Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in a new capacity – not the way they had worked together for many years.

“But in whatever capacity you appear in Russia, we are always glad to see you, because you have made a huge contribution to the development of our bilateral interstate relations. This applies to all spheres of activity – both humanitarian and economic. With Your direct participation, relations between Russia and Turkmenistan have reached a very high, almost allied level of strategic partnership,” the Russian leader emphasized.

In this regard, it was expressed confidence that Turkmenistan’s policy in the Russian direction will continue in the traditional way.

Speaking about the decision to grant the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan the state award of Russia – the 4^th degree Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, the President of the Russian Federation stressed that this is a very high award, which fully corresponds to the contribution that was made to the development of interstate relations.

Expressing deep gratitude for the opportunity of a personal meeting, the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh conveyed the warmest words of greeting and health wishes from the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov to the head of the friendly country.

“As You said very well, Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation are strategic partners, and this has been proven both by life and time. Cooperation is getting stronger from year to year, expanding, and progressively developing,” the Hero-Arkadag highlighted.

“The essence of our strategy is to strengthen the bonds of friendship between our countries. And, as it befits, we will continue in this direction,” Arkadag Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said.

Thanking the Russian leader for bestowing the highest state award of the Russian Federation – the 4^th degree Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh emphasized that it was a very great honor for him and in general a historic, landmark day, which few people have.

“This proves once again that the bonds of friendship and good-neighborliness have indeed always been at bottom of interaction between the peoples of Turkmenistan and Russia. It is gratifying that together we have also made a historic contribution to strengthening traditional cooperation,” Arkadag underlined.

Taking this opportunity, the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov sincerely and cordially congratulated the President of the Russian Federation on his recent anniversary and wished him sound health and great progress in public activities, and the best wishes to the people of Russia.

Then the ceremony of awarding the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov the 4^th degree Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” took place.

The moderator reads out the relevant Decree of the President of the Russian Federation.

In a solemn ceremony, President Vladimir Putin attaches the order to the chest of the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan.

The honorary award bestowed to the Hero-Arkadag for his great personal contribution to strengthening the strategic partnership between the two countries became a sign of respect for Turkmenistan, which is firmly committed to developing and strengthening the bonds of brotherhood, good neighborliness and cooperation with Russia.

Thanks to the efforts of both sides, concrete and effective steps have been taken to strengthen ties in foreign policy, trade and economic cooperation is successfully advancing, and humanitarian contacts are consistently expanding.

Arkadag’s official visit, along with the identification of new areas of strategic cooperation between the two countries, opens a new page in the history of the development of relations and is important for the expansion of inter-parliamentary ties.

At the end of the official visit program, the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan left for his Homeland.

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A number of meetings were held within the framework of the official visit of the delegation of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan to the Russian Federation. In particular, the state and prospects of cooperation were put on the agenda of the meeting at the level of deputy heads of the upper chambers of the parliaments of the two countries K.Babaev and K.Kosachev.

The discussion was also attended by the heads of the committees of the Halk Maslakhaty and the Mejlis of the Milli Gengesh. It was noted with satisfaction that currently the Turkmen-Russian interparliamentary cooperation is becoming active, regular and effective.

Particular attention was paid to the development of ways to expand ties in the field of legislative activity.

Moscow also hosted a round table on the topic “Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation between Turkmenistan and Russia: Directions and Priorities”.

As it was noted, the speech of the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov testifies to the high level of trust between our states and is in line with joint efforts to strengthen bilateral cooperation. In this context, it was emphasized the importance of creating an Inter-Parliamentary Commission of the two chambers of the legislative bodies of both countries.

Noting with satisfaction the high level of cooperation between Russia and Turkmenistan on international platforms, including at the UN, the representatives of the friendly country expressed their conviction that joint activities will continue, taking into account the strategic nature of Turkmen-Russian relations.

During the meeting, a thorough exchange of views took place on the possibilities of building up inter-parliamentary contacts between the two friendly states, priorities of interaction for the coming period, prospects for further rapprochement between Russia and Central Asia, as well as on the practical implementation of initiatives in the context of international and bilateral parliamentary activities.

During the meeting held within the framework of the official visit of the delegation of Turkmenistan to the Russian Federation, the head of the Galkynyş Group of National Equestrian Games of the Akhal-Teke Equestrian Complex of the President of Turkmenistan and the Director General of the Great Moscow State Circus exchanged views on the prospects of cooperation in the field of circus art. It was noted that there are ample opportunities for activating fruitful contacts in this direction, which in general will facilitate strengthening Turkmen-Russian cultural ties.

It should be noted that over the past years, the Galkynyş Group of National Equestrian Games has made a number of foreign tours, which have been crowned with great success, and also participated in prestigious international festivals and competitions, winning many awards.

The prospects for the development of Turkmen-Russian cooperation in equestrian sports, training of riders and racehorses also became the subject of an interested discussion during the meeting of the head of the Galkynyş National Equestrian Games Group with the General Director of the Kremlin Riding School.

In this context, it should be emphasized that in Turkmenistan – the Homeland of the famous Akhal-Teke horses – horse breeding is recognized as a matter of national importance. A great merit in this belongs to the Hero-Arkadag, whose ascetic activity promoted the revival, preservation and development of the art of breeding purebred “heavenly” horses, increasing their livestock, forming a modern profile infrastructure, popularizing equestrian sports, as well as national equestrian games. Today, this large-scale work is successfully continuing under the leadership of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov.

During the meeting, the subject of an exchange of views with Russian colleagues was the topic of creating favorable conditions for keeping horses and proper care for them, where an important factor is the organic combination of existing experience with advanced technologies and scientific achievements in this sphere.