Uzbek Leader to Visit Turkmenistan

Uzbek president Islam Karimov will travel to Ashgabat in October to meet with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov and bury past grudges.



The two leaders are expected to sign bilateral treaties on cooperation in energy, agriculture, transport and tourism and to seal their partnership on humanitarian affairs.



The two countries have a 2,000 kilometre border and share road and rail links as well as water from the Amu Darya river.



Turkmen-Uzbek relations began to deteriorate after Karimov’s last visit seven years ago when he opposed the then president Saparmurat Niazov’s plans for a man-made reservoir in the Karakum desert, because of concerns it would disrupt water supplies to Khorezm and Karakalpakstan, both in northwest Uzbekistan.



In 2002, Turkmenistan accused Tashkent of helping conspirators who had planned a coup d’etat. Relations remained frozen until Niazov died last December.