ANTALYA, Turkey -- Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has begun a two-day visit to Turkey. He is meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Antalya province for talks expected to focus on energy issues and bilateral cooperation, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports.
The visit comes after Berdymukhammedov visited Sofia on August 26, also to discuss energy matters, including the Nabucco gas-pipeline project.
Bulgaria and Turkey, along with Austria, Hungary, and Romania, signed transit agreements for the Nabucco project in July.
EU officials hope Turkmenistan will contribute gas to the Nabucco project, which is designed to decrease the bloc's reliance upon Russian gas imports.
Turkmenistan and Turkey have extensive business ties. Turkish companies were among the first to start work in Turkmenistan following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
They include, especially, construction companies, which have won many of the Turkmen government's tenders for large projects.
Among those projects have been textile production factories to make textiles an increasingly important export sector.