The President of India Ram Nath Kovind Visited Republic of Turkmenistan and Kingdom of the Netherlands from April 1 to April 7, 2022. The visit discusses the pending issues and strengthening bilateral relations with President of Turkmenistan Serdar Gurbangulyyevich Berdimuhamedov and King of Netherlands Willem Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
President’s Visit To Turkmenistan:
i.The Turkmenistan visit was scheduled from April 1 to 4 April 2022.
- Kovind becomes the first ever Indian President to visit Turkmenistan.
- In order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the two countries, India-Turkmenistan Postal stamp was released.
ii.Documents were signed along with Memorandum of Understanding (Mou’s) at the Oguzhar (Presidential) palace Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
iii.Discussions were made on centuries-old close civilizational and cultural linkages, friendship, trust and mutual understanding.
iv.Potential co-operations in areas such as energy, petrochemicals, transport, communications, information and technology, textile, leather and footwear, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, construction, agriculture & agro-processing, gems and jewellery etc
Infrastructural Developments:
i.Cooperation in the Energy sector
- The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project aims for the economic development of the region and ensures integrity, safety and security of the project by integrating “the Business Principles” in various Agreements of TAPI gas pipeline project.
- Introducing “International Solar Alliance (ISA)’ for rapid and massive deployment of solar energy for effective implementation of the Paris Agreement.
- Reduction in the loss of infrastructure by promoting “Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)”.
ii.Transport and Connectivity
- The Ashgabat Agreement Established the International Transport and Transit Corridor and other regional transport corridors, the countries focused on the importance of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
- Turkmenistan proposed the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway line as a linked corridor of the INSTC for the movement of goods between Turkmenistan and India and others.
- India proposed to include Chabahar port developed by India in the INSTC framework.
iii.Cultural Exchanges
- As a part of cultural exchanges the Turkmen agreed to send 20 of its youth icons as part of the 100-member youth delegation from Central Asia to India under the framework of India-Central Asia Summit.
iv.Security
- To counter modern challenges, threats, international terrorism, and cross border terrorism, etc. regular meetings will be held between their Security Councils including in the framework of India-Central Asia Summit mechanism.
- Appreciation for Indian ethos (in security) “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, i.e. “the world as one family”.
- To develop peace, the President of Turkmenistan adopted the resolution of the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA) “The Role and Importance of a Policy of Neutrality in Maintaining and Strengthening International Peace, Security and Sustainable Development”.
Memorandum of Understanding (Mou’s) And Agreements:
Four MoU’s and agreements were signed by India and Turkmenistan:
i.Memorandum of Understanding between the Financial Monitoring Service at the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan and Financial Intelligence Unit of India.
ii.Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the Republic of India on Cooperation in the field of Disaster Management.
iii.Programme of Cooperation between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the Republic of India in the fields of Culture and Arts for the period 2022-2025.
iv.Memorandum of Understanding between Ministry of Sports and Youth Policy of Turkmenistan and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of Government of Republic of India on Cooperation in Youth Matters.
President’s Visit To Netherlands:
The President of India visited the Kingdom of Netherlands from April 4 to April 7, 2022 and met King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima. During the visit, the President will hold discussions with His Royal Majesties and Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands. It is also the first Head of State visit from India to the Netherlands in more than three decades.
- The visit also celebrates 75 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and the Netherlands.
- ThePresident of India is accompanied by Loganathan Murugan, Minister of State in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Dilip Ghosh, Member of Parliament.
Memorandum of Understanding (Mou’s) And Agreements:
Four MoU’s and agreements were signed between India and Netherlands:
i.Extension of MoU on bilateral cooperation in the field of Ports, Maritime Transport and Logistics.
ii.Extension of MoU with State Archives Department, Kerala and National Archives of Netherlands on the execution of the Shared Cultural Heritage Programme.
iii.MoU for the Cosmos Malabaricus Project between Leiden University and the Kerala Council of Historical Research, National Archives of the Netherlands on making the digitised archrivals of 17th-century documents available to Indian and International researchers.
iv.Extension of the Programme of Cooperation between Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India and Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Government of Netherlands.
Discussion On The Developments:
i.Participation by the President of India in the famous Keukenhof Tulip garden to name ‘Maitri’ Tulip as a symbol of historic friendship between people of India and the people of the Netherlands.
ii.As a part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) celebrations, the cultural performance on ‘Ramayana’ by Kalakshetra Foundation of Chennai, co-organized by Embassy of India in Netherlands and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) has been conducted.
Recently Related News:
i.Cabinet approves MoU between India and Turkmenistan on Cooperation in Disaster Management
The Union Cabinet approved the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Turkmenistan on cooperation in disaster management including preparedness, response and capacity building.
- The various areas of cooperation include monitoring, forecasting, and assessment of emergencies, and interaction between appropriate organisations involved in disaster management.
ii.TerraPay, NPCI International signs MoU to enable real-time, International Payments
On January 27, 2022, the NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), international arm of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with TerraPay, the Netherlands- based global payments infrastructure company.
About Turkmenistan:
President – Serdar Gurbangulyyevich Berdimuhamedov
Capital – Ashgabat
Currency – Turkmenistan New Manat
