Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is arriving in Turkmen capital Ashgabat on a two-day working visit on Monday to discuss bilateral cooperation issues, the Russian ministry said.

Lavrov is expected to meet with Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov to speak of expanding mutually beneficial economic ties, raising trade and making cooperation between Russian and Turkmen regions more active.

"Russia highly values relations with Turkmenistan, attaches significance to further strengthening and developing mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation and interaction in the political, trade and economic, cultural and educational and other spheres," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Turkmenistan in December 2009. On the sidelines of his visit, the countries' gas monopolies Gazprom and Turkmengaz signed a deal, ending a months-long gas dispute between the two ex-Soviet states.

Medvedev also said then that Russia and Turkmenistan will jointly build new gas pipelines "across Turkmenistan further on to Europe."

MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti)