On 20 March 2024, a meeting was held in Rome between the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Tajani with his Turkmen counterpart Meredov, crowning a visit to Rome by the Turkmenistan Foreign Ministry. Both shared their satisfaction with the positive progress of bilateral relations, particularly in the economic, cultural-academic-linguistic fields, in which Meredov indicated his desire to further consolidate the leading position that Italy already boasts for Turkmenistan.
Future collaborations may also be developed in the sectors of heavy industry, agri-food, oil & gas, communications and aerospace, infrastructure and transport. The latter were also the subject of two agreements signed by Meredov at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport on rail and maritime matters.
At the end of April 2023, the mission to Turkmenistan of Prof. Romeo Orlandi (Special Ambassador for Rome’s candidacy to host the Universal Exposition in 2030) came to an end. The program of the visit included high-level institutional talks, involving Deputy Prime Minister Mahrijemal Mamedova, Foreign Trade Minister Begench Gochmollaiev and Deputy Foreign Minister Myahri Byashimova, as well as the heads of the Chamber of Commerce and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan. At the center of the meetings was the promotion of Rome’s candidacy to host EXPO 2030. Italy’s willingness to host an exhibition of archaeological finds from Turkmenistan in Rome in 2025 was also confirmed.
On 7 July 2021, a country presentation of Turkmenistan was held in video format in favor of Italian companies.
The Turkmen delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Vepa Hajiyev, while the Italian delegation was led by Undersecretary Di Stefano.
On 3 September 2020, at the request of Turkmenistan, President Mattarella held a telephone conversation with his counterpart Berdimuhamedov.
On 19 June 2020, Undersecretary Di Stefano inaugurated an informal business forum in VTC which allowed to review the progress made by the agreements signed during the visit and to present some examples of success and best practices of activities involving Italian SMEs in Turkmenistan.
On 20 May 2020, a telephone conversation between Undersecretary Di Stefano and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meredov, made it possible to resume the threads of bilateral and regional cooperation interrupted by the outbreak of the pandemic, given Italy’s interest in ensuring some effective follow-up to Berdimuhamedov’s visit to Rome in November 2019.
Turkmenistan participated at the level of Deputy Foreign Minister in the Conference “Italy and Central Asia: strengthening mutual knowledge, cooperation and partnership”, promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in collaboration with ISPI and held at the Farnesina on 13 December 2019.
On 7 November 2019, President Berdimuhamedov paid an official visit to Rome (accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Meredov), for meetings with President Mattarella and Prime Minister Conte. On 6 November, in parallel with the visit, a business forum was held in Milan, organised by ICE, with a large participation (one hundred Italian companies and one hundred and thirty-eight participants in the Turkmen delegation).
President Berdimuhamedov’s visit proved to be very positive, allowing him to discuss with his Italian counterparts the main issues of bilateral partnership and the important issues of regional and international relevance (in particular, connectivity of the Central Asian region, Afghanistan, Italy’s role in Central Asia). At the end of the visit, 4 intergovernmental agreements were signed (in the fields of Health, Air Services, Environment and Education).
On 27 March 2019, a visit was held in Ashgabat by the Undersecretary, Hon. Di Stefano, for meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rashid Meredov, as well as with the Deputy Prime Ministers of Trade Chary Gylyjov, for oil & gas Myratgeldi Meredov and the President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan, Dadayev.
As regards the cooperation in the field of defence, on 25 November 2015, the Minister at that time Pinotti met in Rome with General Myrat Islamov, Head of the State Border Service and Commander of the Turkmenistan Border Troops.
On 29 March 2017, Minister of Defence Berdiyev met Minister Pinotti in Rome, with whom the bilateral agreement for cooperation in the defence sector was signed. On 21 June 2017, the first bilateral staff talks were held, followed by those held in Rome in May 2019.
In May 2015, the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, visited Italy for the inauguration of the Turkmen National Pavilion at the Milan Expo, meeting Prime Minister Renzi and Head of State Mattarella in Rome.
On 18 November 2014, the Prime Minister at the time, Matteo Renzi, accompanied by the CEO of ENI Claudio Descalzi, went to Ashgabat for a short working visit, during which energy agreements were signed between ENI and the Turkmen State Hydrocarbons Company. During the talks with President Berdymuhamedov, it was agreed on the opportunity to launch a strategic partnership between the two countries in other economic and commercial sectors, as well as in the fields of education, culture and tourism.
Prime Minister Renzi’s mission was followed by bilateral political consultations between the then Deputy Minister Pistelli and Deputy Minister Myatiyev, which took place on 20 April 2015 at the Foreign Ministry and which, in an extremely cordial atmosphere, confirmed the relaunch of bilateral political dialogue.
Afterwards, the Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Maurizio Martina, went to Ashgabat on 23 April 2015, at the head of a delegation of managers of companies in the agri-food sector and the main trade associations. On this occasion, Minister Martina met with President Berdymukhammedov, Foreign Minister Meredov, Minister of Agriculture Charlyiev, Deputy Prime Minister for Trade Taganov and Deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture Yazmuradov.