Iran defense minister in Turkmenistan for talks

Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan has arrived in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, to hold talks with the country’s senior officials.

Heading a high-ranking delegation, Dehqan arrived in Ashgabat on Monday and was welcomed by his Turkmen counterpart Colonel Begench Gundogdiev.

The Iranian official is in Turkmenistan at the invitation of Gundogdiev to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues with senior Turkmen political and military officials.

This is the first visit by an Iranian defense minister to Turkmenistan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The visit comes on the heels of the Friday meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

During the meeting, Rouhani expressed Iran’s preparedness to offer help to Turkmenistan to develop its infrastructure and provide the Central Asian country with required commodities.