Turkmenistan: Smoke Signals on Energy Cooperation Rising in Ashgabat?

The US Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Richard Morningstar, is in Turkmenistan for a series of high-level meetings.

Morningstar, who is on a two-day visit that is scheduled to conclude March 4, is discussing "further cooperation in the energy sector" with top officials, according to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Ashgabat.

Meanwhile, the European Union's Special Representative for Central Asia, Pierre Morel, met President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on March 2. European companies "express great interest in participating in ongoing projects in the promising Turkmen fuel and energy sector, as well as in the intensification of business ties in other sectors," the semi-official Turkmenistan.ru quoted Morel as saying.

On March 2, Berdymukhamedov also received Lord Philip Hunt, the British Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.