Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday 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.
