Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov celebrated the regional spring holiday Nowruz in Iran, meeting with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in Tehran and presidents and senior officials from 18 other countries.
The State News Agency of Turkmenistan (TDH) reported on March 17 that President Berdymukhamedov received Pierre Morel, EU Special Representative for Central Asia and Georgia, and that Morel had thanked Turkmenistan for its support of Afghanistan, advocated further strengthening of contacts, and urged further cooperation in the fuel and energy sectors.
A curious phenomenon -- a story about the Nabucco pipeline published in The New York Times headlined "European Pipeline Project Faces Formidable Obstacles" does not once mention Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan benefited considerably from the $4 billion soft loan it was able to negotiate in 2009 with China, authorizing the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) to build the 7,000-kilometer natural gas pipeline (the world's largest) from Turkmenistan to China and begin to pump gas this year.
Following a period when he was courted extensively by the European Union and the United States yet did not make any new commitments, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been meeting with Middle Eastern leaders -- also without making any new substantive deals.
The signing of an agreement to build the Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India (TAPI) pipeline by the leaders of the four countries in Ashgabat in December 2010 generated a certain momentum, yet there are still a number of crucial pricing and security issues to be resolved.
The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has given initial approval for the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Turkmenistan, a move that is designed to help Europe achieve energy security but that has drawn fire from human rights groups.
Gen. James N. Mattis, Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), visited Turkmenistan January 11 to meet with Turkmen leaders. It was Gen. Mattis' first trip to Turkmenistan since assuming command last August at CENTOM, which oversees U.S. military activities in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India gathered in Ashgabat in December to sign an agreement for the new TAPI transnational pipeline named for their countries. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov had spearheaded the effort to revive the long-languishing project that has always foundered on the issue of stability in the war-torn regions through which it must pass.
