Swaraj meets Turkmenistan counterpart;discusses enhancing bilateral co-op

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday met Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rasit Meredow on the sidelines of the India-Central Asia Dialogue here and discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation across sectors.

Swaraj arrived in the ancient city of Samarkand on Saturday on a two-day visit to Uzbekistan to attend the first India-Central Asia Dialogue, which focussed on a plethora of regional issues including enhancing connectivity to war-ravaged Afghanistan.

"EAM @SushmaSwaraj met the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rasit Meredow on the sidelines of the India-Central Asia Dialogue in #Samarkand. Discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation across sectors," MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

India enjoys close, friendly and historical ties with Turkmenistan and the two countries are part of the ambitious TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan–India) pipeline project.

Turkmenistan, which sits on the world's fourth-largest gas reserves, started building its section of the pipeline in December 2015. The TAPI pipeline will have a capacity to carry 90 million standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) gas for 30 years.

The project will bring clean fuel to the growing economies of India and Pakistan. It will provide energy-hungry India gas to run its power plants.

Under the pipeline project, Pakistan and India will be provided 1.325 bcfd gas each and Afghanistan will be getting a share of 0.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) gas.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Turkmenistan in July 2015 during which a number of documents were signed between the two sides. It was a historic visit given that an Indian Prime Minister had visited Turkmenistan after 20 years.