Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday met Serdar Berdimuhamedov, President of Turkmenistan, in Ashgabat.

According to the PM Office, the prime minister congratulated the Turkmen president on the 30th anniversary of Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan and on the UN designation of 2025 as the International Year of Peace and Trust.

While underscoring the importance of the historic and fraternal relations between Pakistan and Turkmenistan, the PM expressed his resolve to further strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries, particularly through enhanced trade and economic engagement.

He conveyed his deepest gratitude to the Turkmen leadership and government for the support extended to safely evacuate Pakistani nationals from Iran during the Iran-Israel war earlier this year.

The PM reaffirmed Pakistan’s desire to enhance connectivity with Turkmenistan through land and sea routes and said that Karachi and Gwadar ports were ideally located to be utilised by the Turkmen side to enhance their outreach to South Asia and beyond.

While thanking the Turkmen president for the hospitality extended to him and his delegation by the Turkmen side, the PM conveyed his warm wishes for H.E. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, National Leader of the Turkmen People, and reiterated his invitation to him as well as to President Serdar Berdimuhamedov to undertake official visits to Pakistan next year, on mutually convenient dates, to be worked out by the two sides.

The Turkmen president thanked the prime minister for his visit and participating in the International Forum on Peace and Trust and assured that Turkmenistan was also keen to enhance its bilateral cooperation with Pakistan across multiple areas of mutual interest.

Premier arrives in Turkmenistan

The premier arrived in Turkmenistan on a two-day official visit, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said.

It added that the premier was undertaking the visit at the invitation of Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, with whom he would hold a bilateral meeting today.

PM Shehbaz and the delegation accompanying him were welcomed by Mammetkhan Chakyev, Turkmenistan’s deputy chairman of cabinet ministers, the PMO statement added.

It said that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Power Minister Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Tariq Fatemi, a key aid to the PM, and Special Assistant to the PM Talha Burki were part of the delegation accompanying the premier.

Moreover, the PM would also attend during his trip a “forum organised in Ashgabat to mark the International Year of Peace and Trust 2025, the International Day of Neutrality, and the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s permanent neutrality”.

United Nations had granted Turkmenistan the status of a neutral country in 1995. UN defines neutrality as “the legal status arising from the abstention of a state from all participation in a war between other states, the maintenance of an attitude of impartiality toward the belligerents, and the recognition by the belligerents of this abstention and impartiality”.

Earlier, state broadcaster PTV News reported that PM Shehbaz would also hold bilateral meetings with other world leaders attending the forum in Ashgabat.