President Kovind, his Turkmenistan counterpart exchange views on regional, international issues

Ashgabat [Turkmenistan], April 2 (ANI): President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday held discussions with his Turkmenistan counterpart Serdar Berdimuhamedov where the two leaders agreed to intensify efforts to strengthen the multifaceted partnership between both countries.
As per an official statement by the President's Secretariat, the two leaders held a detailed discussion on the state and prospects of bilateral relations and also exchanged views on various regional and international issues of importance.
Kovind called his visit to Turkmenistan, which is the first such visit by an Indian President, special since it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Turkmenistan.
Speaking on trade and economic cooperation, Kovind said that trade between India and Turkmenistan continues to be modest.
"While it has picked up this year, there remains a lot of untapped potential for enhancing and diversifying it. Our business community and officials need to work together on this. They should engage in more frequent and sector-specific interactions with each other to clarify business rules and regulations, document requirements, payment mechanisms etc," he said.
"India-Central Asia Business Council was established in 2020 under the India-Central Asia Dialogue framework to facilitate regional trade. It is important for our apex Chambers to pro-actively participate in this forum and provide suggestions for taking economic cooperation forward," he added.
Noting that Turkmenistan is planning to further develop its oil and gas fields as well as diversify its petrochemicals sector, he said that India has made rapid technological advancements in all fields related to oil and gas. "The technical and technological capabilities of Indian companies in the downstream field could be utilized in further development of the petrochemical sector of Turkmenistan," he added.
Referring to the digitalization drive in Turkmenistan, Kovind said that India is a global leader in the digitalization of economy and service delivery and Turkmenistan may consider utilizing the expertise of Indian companies in its journey towards digital transformation.
Speaking about the cooperation between India and Turkmenistan in the UN and other multilateral fora, he said that there is a broad consensus between both countries on regional and global geopolitical and economic issues.
He also appreciated Turkmenistan for its support to India's candidatures in the recent past at the UN and other international organizations. He said that India counts on Turkmenistan's support for its initiatives during India's current membership at the UN Security Council for the term 2021-22.
Speaking on the regional issues, Kovind said that India stands for peace and stability as well as an inclusive government in Afghanistan and that any instability in Afghanistan is a threat to the whole region.
"Radicalization cannot be contained in a geographical region. The spread of radicalization, extremism and separatism would be a threat to regional and global security. Our collective approach has been articulated by UN Security Council Resolution 2,593 which demanded that Afghan territory not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts," he stated.
India and Turkmenistan also signed and exchanged four MoUs in the fields of disaster management, financial intelligence, culture and youth matters in the presence of the two Presidents. (ANI)