Two Turkmen activists who attempted to gain entry to a human rights meeting in Warsaw convened by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) this week were blocked when Turkmenistan protested their participation, EurasiaNet reported.
Energy ministers from the four countries involved in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline decided to invite a "global energy giant" to bid on implementation of the project, the Hindu Times and other India media reported this week.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov held a telephone conversation with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, the third leader he has spoken to this month among the states participating in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline. The Turkmen leader had visited India in May, and now has the cooperation of India's leadership in the pipeline project.
Turkmenistan has increasingly been offering its services to convene peace talks among the combatants in Afghanistan, citing its experience in helping to bring to end the civil war in Tajikistan in 1997.
Turkmenistan, so key to the energy plans of so many, had long shown its readiness to break Russia's stranglehold on its gas and oil exports. But Ashgabat has offered few hints as to who it prefers as an alternative.
International news outlets were intrigued by an August 13th announcement by the Turkmen president at a government meeting indicating that Turkmenistan would review proposals for offshore drilling from the companies Chevron, TX Oil, Mubadala, and ConocoPhilips.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and President Dmitry Medvedev spoke on the phone July 30, but as usual, little was said on either the Kremlin or Turkmen government websites about the reason for their call except that they "stressed the importance of implementing mutually beneficial projects." It's not clear where the Russian state company Gazprom's purchases from Turkmenistan stand.
