On 19-20 May, official visit of Turkmen President Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov to Azerbaijan took place. It was his first visit to Azerbaijan after the first visit of the former Turkmen President, Safarmurad Niyazov in 1996.
Before the Turkmen President's official visit to Azerbaijan, Baku paid off debts to Ashgabat for the natural gas supplied at the beginning of 1990.
The documents signed within the framework of Turkmen President's official visit to Azerbaijan are agreements on cooperation between chambers of commerce and industry, and between the Finance Ministries, as well as a protocol on cooperation between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries. The countries also signed intergovernmental agreements on international combined cargo deliveries; on cooperation in the sphere of standardization, metrology and accrediting; on cooperation in the sphere of youth and sports.
The documents were signed as a result of one-to-one meeting and talks in large between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, Ilham Aliyev and Berdimuhamedov. The relations between the countries were restored after a new President of Turkmenistan Gurbangulu Berdimuhammadov was elected. In November 2007, the representative of Azerbaijan on status problem of the Caspian Khalaf Khalafov visited Ashgabat for the first time for after a long time and discussed the development of the bilateral relations. The meeting of the Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan inter-government commission on the economic and humanitarian cooperation was held in January 2008 and vice-premier of Turkmenistan Khidir Saparliyev and Rashid Meredov (also foreign minister) visited Baku in March.
The Commission adopted a decision to expand ties in trade and economy, transport, communication, oil and gas, environment and humanitarian sphere.
The events were trailed by re-establishment of Turkmenistan Embassy's activity in Baku. The activity of the Embassy in Baku was stopped in 2001.
The disagreements between the two countries began due to the disputed fields in the Caspian Sea (Kapaz, Sardar in Turkmen transcription), the sea border lines and Azerbaijan's debt to Turkmenistan that appeared in the early 1990s. Azerbaijan fully paid its debt to Turkmenistan worth $44.8mln for the purchase of gas during the Turkmen president's visit to Azerbaijan on 19 May.
According to Azerbaijani statistical figures, the trade turnover between the two countries made up $53.9mln in 2007 with $40.3 of this amount accounting the import operations. However, the export of the Azerbaijani goods prevailed in the foreign trade operations in the first quarter totaling to $5.4mln with a total trade turnover of $8.9mln. The governments of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan plan to increase the trade turnover to $500,000 in the next few years.
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan will hold first business forum in Ashgabat on 16 to 18 June to establish trade and economic relations, a source in the Export and Investment Promoting Fund of Azerbaijan (AZPROMO) reported. "The economy of Turkmenistan is very interesting for the Azerbaijani businessmen," the same source said.