Turkmenistan marks 20 years of Neutrality and exclusive stories dispatched to Asiavision

Following a request made by the ABU, Sri Lanka’s leading news network News 1st, an arm of ABUs member MTV Channel Pvt. Ltd. was in Turkmenistan and dispatched stories to ASIAVISION with exclusive interviews from Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Darmandra Pradan and the Afghan Minister of Gas and Mines, Dr Daud Saba.

The two ministers were among other dignitaries including state leaders and high ranking UN officials who attended in Ashgabat the international conference on the policy of Neutrality marking 20 years since Turkmenistan achieved permanent neutrality.

In his speech on this particular occasion, the President of Turkmenistan, H.E. Mr Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow said the country was proclaimed the first neutral state in the history recognized by the international community. “The foreign policy of Neutrality is based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutually beneficial cooperation with all countries” said the Turkman leader.

Meanwhile, India and Pakistan joined hands with Afghanistan and struck a deal with Turkmenistan to build a gas pipeline at a cost of $10bn. Leaders from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, converged in the remote Karakum desert, nearly 300km northeast of the Turkmenistan capital to launch the 1,814 km Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, named after the countries it is designed to cross.