ASHGABAT (TCA) — A trilateral meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov will take place in Turkmenistan before the end of this year, Turkish Ambassador to Turkmenistan Mustafa Kapucu said, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported.
“We wanted to convene a tripartite summit last year. It is scheduled for this year, and the preparatory work is underway. The summit is supposed to be held in Turkmenistan, there is no change. The foreign ministers and the energy ministers of our countries [Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan] should meet before the summit in order to prepare it,” Kapucu said on July 14.
The meeting on the level of foreign ministers will take place in Baku on July 18-19, it will be also devoted to the preparation of the leaders’ meeting, the ambassador added.
Initially, the trilateral meeting on the development of cooperation in the sectors of energy and transport was slated for October 2016, but was postponed after the failed coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016.
There are plans for the export of Turkmen natural gas via the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan to Turkey and on to Europe. The project is vitally important for Turkmenistan, which now has only one buyer for its natural gas — China.
