Swaraj meets Turkmenistan counterpart;discusses enhancing bilateral co-op

SAMARKAND (Uzbekistan), Jan 13: 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. (PTI)