Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and visiting Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko agreed to sign a three-way agreement with Kazakhstan on Thursday in Moscow, the Turkmen government said in a statement Tuesday.
President Vladimir Putin later spoke by telephone with Berdymukhammedov and the leaders "expressed satisfaction'' with progress on the Caspian project, the Kremlin press service said, Itar-Tass reported.
The agreement comes after Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov failed to reach a deal on starting construction of the pipeline during a visit to Turkmenistan in November.
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