In February 2018 Hartmut Jäschke, a representative of Germany-based “Rohde & Schwarz” specializing in designing cyber security solutions for government agencies, military secure communication lines as well as surveillance systems, visited Turkmenistan.
Jäschke met with President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and said that the company seeks to develop relations with Turkmenistan.
The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch, with reference to a person knowledgeable about the issue, reported that Turkmenistan was seeking technology for monitoring and blocking mobile and satellite communications, which would also enable the government to block internet access.
In a March 2018 letter, Human Rights Watch asked Rohde and Schwarz to publicly disclose whether it was considering, or had already carried out, such technology sales to Turkmenistan. However, the company declined to provide any information on the details and the results of negotiations.
According to HRW, companies have a responsibility to respect human rights and make sure their activities should not contribute to human rights abuses.In this case, Rohde & Schwarz should not proceed with the sale of technology to Turkmenistan if there are indications that the government may use the company technology to persecute critics or facilitate violations of rights to freedom of expression.