ASHGABAT. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The Turkmen leadership is in favor of intensifying cooperation with NATO.
"From now on, we will begin close cooperation with NATO," Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov said at the ceremony for the signing of a resolution on an individual partnership program for 2004-2005 in the framework of the NATO Partnership for Peace program.
Sources in the Tajik defense agencies told Interfax that the priorities of the cooperation program are personnel training, the upgrading of the armed forces, budget planning and dealing with emergencies.
The sources said that participation in the program does not impose strict obligations on Turkmenistan but implies government guarantees to such affairs like fighting terrorism, settling conflicts by peaceful means, observing human rights and advancing democracy.
Turkmenistan was the first CIS country in Central Asia to sign a framework agreement on participation in the Partnership for Peace program at the beginning of 1995.