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Addressing reporters after a meeting with Meredov, Erjavec described Turkmenistan as an "extremely important political and economic partner" for Slovenia.

Merchandise trade has been on the increase, from EUR 13m in 2013 it more than doubled to EUR 25m in the first ten months of last year.

The bilateral commission heard that Turkmenistan currently has 3,000 projects totalling EUR 60bn open and that Slovenian companies were invited to take part, Erjavec said.

Concrete deals discussed at the session were in the fields of telecommunications, agriculture, logistics, energy, health and textile, according to the minister.

Erjavec and Meredov also established great potential in transport. "We need to bear in mind that Turkmenistan is located between West and East, between the European Union and China," Erjavec said.

The pair of ministers also discussed topical international issues, including the Ukraine crisis.

Erjavec said that both countries advocated peace and security and cooperated with each other in international organisations and that they supported each other's international bids.

Meredov's visit is also intended as preparations for the first official visit by Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow to Slovenia, planned in the first part of the year.

Erjavec expects the visit to be a new milestone in bilateral relations. By then five agreements are to be prepared for signing, including one to stimulate and protect investments and one on international transportation of people and cargo.

Meredov, who serves as Turkmenistan's foreign minister and deputy PM, was also received today by President Borut Pahor, who paid an official visit to Turkmenistan in July 2014, PM Miro Cerar and National Assembly Speaker Milan Brglez.

The efforts to boost economic ties topping the agenda, Pahor said that economic cooperation should be the focus in preparing the Turkmenistani president's visit to Slovenia.

Pahor and Meredov also discussed the political situation in Central Asia and topical international issues with special emphasis on Ukraine and Syria, the president's office said.

The meeting with Cerar also heard a call for enhancing economic cooperation between the two countries with Meredov identifying interest in trade, agriculture and energy, according to the PM's office.

Brglez and Meredov were meanwhile cited by the parliament's PR service as expressing the hope that good bilateral relations would be further enhanced and that active political dialogue would pave the way for economic projects in mutual interest and to enhanced cooperation in culture, education and science.

The pair also called for closer cooperation between parliaments of both countries, especially at the level of delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Touching on the situation in Ukraine, Meredov highlighted Turkmenistan's neutral status and called for a more active role of European institutions, especially OSCE and the EU, in encouraging talks between the conflicting sides, according to a release from parliament.

Meredov echoed the position in his meeting with Cerar, while he was also identified humanitarian and development projects as a key to stabilising the situation in Afghanistan, according to the PM's office.