Turkmens' interest in Iran growing

The number of visits to Iran by Turkmenistan's people has doubled during the last year, Iran's envoy to Ashgabat announced on Monday."In the last year, the number of the Turkmen nationals who have visited Iran has almost doubled," Iran's Ambassador to Turkmenistan Seyed Mohammad Moussa Hashemi Golpaygani said. Exchange of visits has grown much easier for the two countries' nationals in recent years and the two states' officials and leaders have also boosted the two countries' relations and cooperation in various political, economic and cultural grounds, the diplomat said explaining the cause of the Turkmen people's increased interest in Iran. "Today, the political, economic, cultural and…ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkmenistan have turned into a role model for the other regional countries, and these relations are even expected to set a role model for the entire world in the near future," he said, adding that the excellent ties between the two nations has made Iran Turkmenistan's number one trade partner. Iran has initiated massive diplomatic steps to expand its ties with the neighboring and the Central Asian states. President Ahmadinejad's administration has in recent years paid special attention to Tehran's economic, cultural and political cooperation with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In July, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed the necessity for the further expansion of trade cooperation with Ashgabat, and said Tehran is eager to use the potentials of Turkmenistan's market. "Given their unique capabilities and capacities, the Iranian and Turkmen markets complement each other, and there are many capacities in Turkmenistan's market for Iranian traders, industrialists and Iran's engineering-technical services," Salehi said in Ashgabat, in an address to Iranian and Turkmen businessmen. The Iranian and Turkmen officials have in their recent meetings agreed to boost gas cooperation between the two countries after they implemented the second gas pipeline project to increase Iran's gas imports from the Central Asian state. The second pipeline which passes through Dauletabad, Sarakhs and Khangiran regions was constructed after Iran felt extensive problems in supplying gas to its Northern parts, which are far from the national grid. The last section of the 1.2-billion-dollar gas pipeline between the two countries was inaugurated by Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart in late November. The 1024-km-pipeline has a daily capacity of 50 mcm. The 48-inch diameter pipeline allows Iran to swap Turkmen gas to other countries. The first phase of the pipeline came on stream in January 2010 to deliver gas from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad field to Iran's Khangiran refinery.