Today, a telephone conversation took place between the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and the Chairperson of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko.

Hero Arkadag and the speaker of the upper house of the Russian Parliament exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the upcoming new year 2025, wishing the peoples of the two countries happiness, well-being and prosperity.

Taking the opportunity, Valentina Matviyenko emphasised the efforts of the National Leader of the Turkmen people to consistently strengthen friendly Turkmen-Russian relations and conveyed warm greetings from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to Hero Arkadag and the President of Turkmenistan.

Having thanked for the kind words, the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Hero-Arkadag, addressed his best wishes in return to the President of Russia, also noting the personal contribution of Valentina Matviyenko to the expansion of cooperation between the two friendly states on the principles of mutual understanding and equality.

As Hero-Arkadag emphasised, 2024 was marked by high dynamics of development of bilateral relations in a wide range of areas. In this regard, confidence was expressed that the coming year will be filled with important events and activities designed to contribute to strengthening Turkmen-Russian friendship and comprehensive partnership.

During the conversation, the importance of political dialogue was noted, which has proven its effectiveness and correspondence to the interests of peace and sustainable development.

The prospects for cooperation in 2025, which was declared the International Year of Peace and Trust by the UN General Assembly at the initiative of Turkmenistan, were also discussed. In this regard, the importance of consolidating the efforts of the world community in returning the culture of dialogue and respect to global politics was emphasised.

Women with their high responsibility and perception of their humanistic mission to the present and future generations are called upon to play a crucial role in this. In this context, the National Leader of the Turkmen people noted the successful holding of the first Dialogue of Women of Central Asian States and Russia in Turkmenistan in 2022. It was emphasised that the past forum demonstrated the creative role of women in international life and gave an important impetus to their active involvement in interstate relations.

In this regard, Hero-Arkadag suggested to Valentina Matvienko to consider the possibility of holding the Second Dialogue of Women of Central Asian States and Russia in May of next year in the Avaza National Tourist Zone on the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea.

The event will be especially meaningful because it will confirm the role and historical purpose of the Caspian as a sea of peace, harmony, good neighbourliness and effective cooperation, a meeting place, dialogue and mutual understanding. The Second Caspian Dialogue will also demonstrate that this region is one of the centres of responsible international diplomacy, a focus of creative impulses of cooperation and mutual understanding.

Continuing the telephone conversation, the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty, Hero-Arkadag, confirmed his readiness to continue making efforts to bring cooperation between friendly countries to a new level.

At the end of the conversation, the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and the Chairperson of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko again exchanged congratulations on the upcoming New Year and wishes for good health and success in responsible state activities.

The telephone conversation took place at the initiative of the Russian side.