1. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will officially invite Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov to visit the Republic of Korea, and hold an ROK-Turkmenistan Foreign Ministers’ meeting on March 30. The official visit to the ROK by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Meredov marks the first of its kind since the ROK and Turkmenistan established diplomatic relations in 1992.

o In the upcoming Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Turkmen counterpart Meredov will discuss key diplomatic schedules between the two countries this year, as well as ways to diversify substantial cooperation and expand regional and global cooperation.

o After the ROK-Turkmenistan Foreign Ministers’ meeting on the morning of March 30, Prime Minister Meredov will attend a dinner hosted by Foreign Minister Kang.

2. Turkmenistan is one of the ROK’s key cooperation partners in Central Asia. Deputy Prime Minister Meredov’s upcoming visit to the ROK is expected to serve as an opportunity to further facilitate high-level exchanges between the two countries, and to expand substantial cooperation between the two countries’ companies in the energy and plant sector.

※ Korean companies are building large-scale petrochemical plants and infrastructure in Turkmenistan.

※ Turkmenistan accounted for the largest share of the ROK’s overseas construction orders in 2015 (US$ 5 billion). The total amount of construction orders from Turkmenistan is US$10 billion.

* unofficial translation