Envoy: Iranian FM to Visit Ashgabat Wednesday

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Ambassador to Ashgabat Seyed Moussa Hashemi Golpayegani announced on Monday that the country's top diplomat Ali Akbar Salehi is due to visit Turkmenistan later this week.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign minister will visit the Turkmen capital city of Ashgabat at the head of a high-ranking politico-economic delegation on Wednesday," Golpayegani told FNA today.

He said that during the trip, Salehi is scheduled to hold meetings with a number of senior Turkmen officials, including President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredev.

Golpayegani expressed the hope that the visit would further promote expansion of bilateral relations between the two countries, and said, "We are happy that we are not faced with any problem in the trend of the development of ties with Turkmenistan."

Iran has in recent years enhanced efforts to boost political, economic and cultural ties and cooperation with the regional and neighboring countries, specially those in the Central Asia.

As a result of the same efforts, the Turkmen President in a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in late June described Tehran as a reliable partner for Ashgabat, and demanded a further expansion of relations and cooperation between the two states.

Also earlier this month, Berdimuhamedov underscored his country's eagerness to further promote bilateral ties with Tehran, and reiterated that development of cooperation with Iran has been the most important achievement of his presidency.