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Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar Visits Turkmenistan


The U.S. Secretary of State’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar is the head of a delegation visiting Turkmenistan on May 29 to meet with the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov and to hold high level talks with Turkmen government officials on energy issues.

Following his meeting with the President of Turkmenistan, Ambassador Morningstar noted, “I had an excellent meeting with President Berdimuhamedov. I was here to listen and exchange ideas with the President. I look forward to more visits and helping to make even stronger the Turkmenistan-U.S. relationship.”

Ambassador Morningstar and his staff will support the United States’ energy goals in the Eurasian region. He will work on key energy issues relating to Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Central Asia and the Caucasus. He will provide the Secretary with strategic advice on policy issues relating to development, transit, and distribution of energy resources in Eurasia.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy of U.S. Secretary of State Richard Morningstar during his visit.

Thanking for the opportunity of a personal meeting Ambassador Morningstar conveyed the heartfelt greeting of the leadership of his country President Barac Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and emphasized that the United States attached special importance to development of the relationships with Turkmenistan as a dependable and very promising partner.

Expressing profound satisfaction with dynamic development of the intergovernmental dialogue built on the principles of equality and mutual respect the sides discussed the ways to enhance traditional cooperation in the priority fields. These included energy sector where partnership between two countries, in mutual opinion, met the interests of global energy security.

Mr. Richard Morningstar said that ranking among the world’s energy producer hydrocarbon-rich Turkmenistan was nowadays a key player on world energy market that conditioned its increasing involvement in international cooperation.

Reaffirming Turkmenistan’s willingness to expand mutually advantageous partnership with the world’s leading companies in implementing the existing giant resource potential Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov focused on the country’s commitment to the policy of diversification of transit of Turkmen energy to international markets. The Turkmen leader noted that achievement of security of transnational pipeline infrastructure and the need for a global integrated approach to this challenge of the modern world were the major factors of successful implementation of designated plans.

Sharing these views the Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy highly appreciated Turkmenistan’s international initiative supported by the United Nations and the energy projects promoted by Turkmen partners to place Turkmenistan’s huge resource potential at the service of mankind. Informing that the United States welcomed the ongoing reforms in the country aimed at guaranteeing the high life quality to citizens of Turkmenistan and diversifying the national economy the guest noted that the United States stood ready to provide real assistance in achieving the designated tasks and goals.

Putting emphasis on the need to intensify the Turkmen-American dialogue and widely attract the expertise and technologies of the American companies to implement joint very promising projects the sides specified the concrete steps to intensify cooperation meeting mutual interests.

U. S. Charge d'Affaires a.i. to Turkmenistan Richard Monroe Miles attended the meeting.

For several years, Turkmenistan was a key player in the U.S. Caspian Basin Energy Initiative, which sought to facilitate negotiations between commercial partners and the Governments of Turkmenistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey to build a pipeline under the Caspian Sea and export Turkmen gas to the Turkish domestic energy market and beyond--the so-called Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP). However, the Government of Turkmenistan essentially removed itself from the negotiations in 2000 by refusing all offers by its commercial partners and making unrealistic demands for billion-dollar "pre-financing." Following a tripartite summit with the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan in May 2007 in which gas was a major topic, however, President Berdimuhamedov again resurrected the idea of a Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, explicitly refusing to rule out the possibility of constructing such a pipeline in the future. The United States and Turkmenistan agreed in February 2007 to "turn a new page" in the bilateral relationship and find ways to cooperate on political and human rights reform, economic and agricultural reform, education and health care, energy, and security.

U.S. criticism of the Government of Turkmenistan's crackdown against perceived sources of political opposition after the November 2002 motorcade attack led to a marked downturn in bilateral relations between the Governments of the United States and Turkmenistan. However, currently the Government of Turkmenistan is interested in engaging with the United States in several areas, including security and energy issues. In order to secure and maintain this engagement, the government has been willing to take some small steps forward in democratic reform, such as lifting exit visas and allowing the registration of some religious minorities. Its human rights record, however, remains poor. Diplomatic missions from various countries and international organizations have joined together to persuade the Government of Turkmenistan to improve its human rights practices, but their efforts have not yet led to significant improvements overall.

Turkmenistan is a key supplier of natural gas in the Caspian region. A pipeline to China is planning to operate the next year. In addition, alternative projects - Nabucco and Transafghan to Pakistan and India are being consideration. Annually, a total of 75 billion cubic meter of gas is produced in the country. The volumes will be increased to 250 billion cubic meter of gas before 2030.

The President of the Republic of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov visited NATO Headquarters and met with Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on 7 November 2007.

They discussed Turkmenistan’s relations with NATO in the context of the Partnership for Peace program and agreed to enhance practical cooperation in several key areas. The two also touched on the regional security situation in Central Asia and in particular the Alliance’s ISAF mission in Afghanistan. President Berdymuhammedov expressed his country's support for the efforts undertaken by the international community to bring stability to Afghanistan.

Turkmen President Berdimuhamedov participates in the NATO Summit meeting in Bucharest.

NATO and Turkmenistan are developing practical cooperation in a number of areas through the country’s Individual Partnership Programme (IPP). Turkmenistan’s cooperation with NATO aims at introducing and familiarizing Turkmen personnel with NATO and Partnership for Peace (PfP) issues, as well as enhancing deepening cooperation in areas such as border control and security, civil emergency planning, and defense planning.

Reference:

    1. US Embassy in Turkmenistan http://turkmenistan.usembassy.gov/ 
    2. Turkmenistan Golden Age information site http://www.turkmenistan.gov.tm 
    3. US Department of State http://www.state.gov 
    4. NATO Official Web Site http://www.nato.int 
    5. Trend Capital News Agency http://capital-en.trend.az