Presidents Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Ebrahim Raisi of Turkmenistan and Iran noted great potential for expanding cooperation in energy, transport, and agribusiness.
Local TV channel Altyn Asyr reports on their telephone conversation on April 8.
"The heads of state stressed the importance of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, which acts as one of the instruments for diversifying ties," the report said.
Berdimuhamedov recalled his June 14-15, 2022, official visit to Iran, during which "essential agreements were reached. As a result, Tehran and Ashgabat are preparing a strategic document on cooperation for the next 20 years.
Turkmenistan and Iran are neighbors on the Caspian Sea and share a 1.148km land border.
Several major economic projects have been implemented between the two countries. In addition to border pipelines, the Dostluk (Friendship) dam and the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran transnational railway have been built together.
Energy, mainly gas exchange, is the most promising area. Turkmenistan began supplying its gas under a trilateral agreement to Azerbaijan via Iran in 2022.
According to the open-ended contract, Iran receives (potentially up to 3-4bn cubic meters per year) from Serakhs, Turkmenistan, to deliver its equivalent to Astara, Azerbaijan.
Official Tehran proposes supplying the equivalent of Turkmen gas also to Turkey and the Persian Gulf countries, estimating a potential exchange volume of up to 15bn cubic meters per year. Armenia and Iraq are already studying such a scheme.
Such deals are essential to Iran because they help fuel Razavi, North and South Khorasan, Golestan, and Semnan provinces, which are remote from national gas resources.
Credits: Eziz Boyarov, Ashgabat
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