Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari has returned to New Delhi last night after a three-day visit to Turkmenistan. During this visit, he had a bilateral meeting with Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimohamedov. <br/><br/>The Vice-President also visited the Indian Embassy at Ashgabat and interacted with some of the India community there as well as some Turkmen children who are learning Hindi. He also paid respect to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi which was installed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi July last. <br/><br/>During the bilateral meeting for about 50 minutes with Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimohamedov, both the leaders had a quick review of bilateral relations and talked on the neutrality initiative, regional peace and security, international transit energy corridor and stable energy supply and also the forward movement of TAPI gas pipeline project.<br/><br/>He also addressed the International Conference on the Policy of Neutrality: International Cooperation for peace, security and development at Turkmen capital city Ashgabat and addressed the ground breaking ceremony of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project at the ancient city of Mary in Turkmenistan<br/><br/>At the International Conference on Neutrality, Mr. Ansari reiterated India's firm stand to work together with global partners to address the challenges of cross-border terrorism, fundamentalism and extremism for regional and global peace and sustainable development in the presence of Heads of States and Heads of Governments and high ranking delegates from as many as 80 countries.<br/><br/>At the historic ground breaking ceremony for the TAPI gas pipeline project at Mary in presence of Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimohamedov, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Mr. Ansari called for bringing about an economically integrated South and Central Asia. He also said that the launching of TAPI marks the first step towards fulfilling the vision of an economically integrated region stretching from the Bay of Bengal to the Caspian Sea to a shared future and to a vision of common prosperity.