TURKMEN-PAKISTANI RAPPROCHEMENT ADVANCES.

The Pakistani navy’s chief of staff, Vice-Admiral Fazih Bohari, held talks in Turkmenistan with President Saparmurad Niazov and with military leaders July 17-20; he also visited Turkmen garrisons . The sides agreed that Pakistan will train sailors for Turkmenistan’s Caspian flotilla and otherwise assist in the development of the Turkmen armed forces. Pakistan is already providing consulting services to Ashgabat’s Defense Ministry and is training Turkmen military pilots. On July 15-16, Pakistani foreign minister Gohar Ayub-Khan conferred with Niazov and with Turkmen foreign minister Boris Shikhmuradov on plans to build oil and gas export pipelines from Turkmenistan to the Indian Ocean via Taliban-controlled Afghan territory and Pakistan. Ayub Khan stressed after the talks that Turkmenistan has "no problem with the Taliban government." The Turkmen side endorsed Pakistan’s plan to host a peace conference on Afghanistan. (Itar-Tass, Radio Islamabad, July 18)

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