Turkmenistan plans to take active part in CIS affairs - president.

24/11 Tass 532

ASHGABAT, November 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Turkmenistan plans to continue
its active participation in the affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS), Turkmenistani President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said
during Tuesday's meeting with Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee
Sergei Lebedev.

The Turkmen president said that his country holds an exclusively
constructive stance in the dialog with the CIS member countries and is
ready to develop fruitful cooperation with them, both in the bilateral and
multifaceted formats, the Turkmenistani national television said.
The CIS executive secretary arrived in Ashgabat on Tuesday. He heads a
delegation, which will take part in the first forum of the CIS
agricultural producers that opens in Ashgabat on Wednesday.
Lebedev thanked Berdymukhammedov for the initiative to organise the
agricultural exhibition and conference, and for Turkmenistan's intensive
preparation for the forum.
The Turkmenistani president put forth the initiative in 2008, he
reaffirmed.
This will be the second large-scale event of the CIS held in Ashgabat
in 2009, after the April meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers,
Lebedev said.
According to the national television, Berdymukhammedov and Lebedev
also discussed prospects for the development of interaction in the CIS
format.
"Turkmenistan sincerely values the century-long relations of
friendship and mutual understanding with CIS peoples and counts on further
intensification of the mutually beneficial cooperation," Berdymukhammedov
said.
In particular, the president expressed Ashgabat's interest in big
purchases of agricultural machinery and equipment produced in the CIS
member countries.
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