Azerbaijan pays gas debt to Turkmenistan

In line with the order of President Qurbanquli Berdimukhambetov, the whole amount of the returned debt-$44,800,000-has been transferred to the account of the reserve monetary fund and aimed at reformation and improvement of the education system in Turkmenistan.

The return of the old debt by Azerbaijan dated to official visit of President of Turkmenistan Qurbanquli Berdimukhambetov to Baku to start on Monday May 19.

The central topic of the meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will become discussion of issues, connected with the construction of the transcaspian gas pipeline.

The gas via the gas pipeline will be supplied from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan bypassing Russia and further via Georgia to Turkey by the Nabucco system via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Austria.

The unsettled issue of debts has long hindered the development of bilateral cooperation, says the press service for the government of Turkmenistan.

In the past year Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan stressed ways of solution of disputable questions, including the gas fields in the Caspian Sea. Thus, the first session of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, led by deputy Prime Ministers of the two countries, was held in Ashkhabat in January of 2008.

The previous visit of the Turkmen President to Azerbaijan was held in 1996, when Saparmurat Niyazov visited Baku.

/Lenta.ru/