This week, Turkmenistan focused on its partnerships with Eastern powerhouses like China and Japan in anticipation of a visit to Ashgabat by Chinese President Xi Jinping and by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to Japan.
President Xi has already issued statements of intention to “jointly plan and further promote comprehensive cooperation between China and Turkmenistan, and thus open up broader prospects of interstate cooperation for the benefit of the two countries and their peoples.” The two countries enjoy close relations, with Beijing having lavished Ashgabat with over 8 billion USD in soft loans and rapidly becoming one of the top consumers of Turkmen gas. Analyst Alexandros Petersen recently wrote for The Atlantic that Beijing has made Turkmenistan “the spoke at the center of its regional wheel of energy infrastructure” in building the 6,000-mile Central Asia-China gas pipeline, that went online in 2009. Turkmenistan plans to ultimately send China 65 billion cubic meters of gas annually, ramping up supplies from 30 billion in 2012 to 40 billion this year, according to figures provided by Turkmenistan’s Deputy Minister of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources earlier this year.
Turkmenistan, as China’s largest foreign supplier of natural gas, has declared China the beneficiary of the resources of Turkmenistan’s largest gas field -- Galkynysh, according to Kakageldy Abdullaev, Chairman of Turkmengaz State Concern, who announced at the V International Gas Congress held in Turkmenistan on May 22-23 this year, that the field will serve as a base for the increased gas exports to China. The Galkynysh field is slated to come online during President Xi’s visit to Turkmenistan.
Further illustrating the warm relations between Turkmenistan and China, as well as the cost of doing business in Turkmenistan, is the lavish birthday celebration for President Berdymukhamedov last week, which the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation footed the bill for.
Japan has also stepped up its engagement with Turkmenistan through a visit by the President of the Japanese-Turkmen Economic Cooperation Committee and Executive Vice-President of Itochu Corporation, Yoichi Kobayashi, to Ashgabat late last year, to discuss possible joint ventures in the energy sector. In January, Head of the Division for Central Asia and the Caucasus of the Department of European Affairs of Japan, Miyashita Tadayiuki, visited Turkmenistan to launch plans for Berdymukhamedov’s imminent visit to Japan. Last week, a Japanese delegation headed by the Deputy Director-General of the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and Special Envoy for Central Asia, Hikihara Takeshi, arrived in Ashgabat to continue preparations for Berdymukhamedov's visit.
Turkmen students studying abroad have routinely found themselves facing obstacles to exit the country to return to their studies, often denied exit visas from the migration authorities, or even in cases in which they already had exit visas and were enrolled at universities abroad. In most cases, the authorities give no explanations, however, in the most recently reported cases of students studying in Turkey, given the popular protest movement that has grown in that country, Turkmenistan’s Ministry of National Security (MNS) has begun summoning Turkmen students studying in Turkey, who are now back in Turkmenistan for their summer holidays, for questioning about their attitudes towards or participation in the Turkish protests. MNS officers have inquired whether they or their acquaintances have taken part and whether they heard about other Turkmen students doing so. They are also warning students that should the situation in Turkey not stabilize by September, the students would likely be barred from exiting the country and continuing their studies in Turkey. More than 4000 students from Turkmenistan are enrolled in government-sponsored educational programs in Turkish universities.
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