On Monday, October 2, an official visit of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to Turkmenistan was held. In the course of the visit negotiations between the heads of the state with an extended and limited number of participants as well as face-to-face talks were held.
Based on the results of the meeting a few documents were signed.
The news outlet Kommersant reports that the intergovernmental agreement in agricultural cooperation, industrial cooperation and the agreement on mutual establishment of competent Migration agencies as well the agreement on cooperation in illicit trafficking of drug and psychotropic substances.
The intergovernmental agreements in sports, tourism, healthcare and culture were also signed.
RBK reports that during the meeting the two leaders discussed extending cooperation in trade.
During the talks in an extended format Putin stated that the trade turnover between the countries has dropped down.The trade ties, according to the Kremlin’s public affairs office, has declined since 2014.
In 2016 the trade turnover amounted to $687,2 mln, which is 30% less than in 2015.Russia’s share in foreign trade turnover of Turkmenistan is 5% with China being the main partner of the country (according to consolidated data for three years and a half China makes up 24,9% of the trade turnover).
The decrease in the trade turnover is partially explained by Russia’s refusal to purchase Turkmen gas.On 2 October no statements in this regard were made.
At the same time Gazprom’s CEO Aleksei Miller was not among the members of the Russian delegation.One of the Russian delegates told RBK that the gas issues were not on the agenda at the negotiations with a small number of participants or in an extended format.
However, he said the President also had a face-to-face meeting.
It should be noted that Ashgabat has no existing customers to sell additional gas volumes to except Russia.After stopping gas supplies from Turkmenistan, Russia started importing gas in Uzbekistan, which, unlike Ashgabat, in 2015 agreed to lower the purchasing price.
Ashgabat turned out to be in an extremely tough situation as the break in the arbitration proceedings expires in late 2018 but taking into account the contract with Uzbekistan (which envisages a “take or pay” clause) there will be no need for Gazprom to purchase the Turkmen gas.
The head of Energy Security Foundation Konstantin Simonov explains that the gas issues were not expected to be solved in the course of the visit.He is convinced that Russia has no reasons to resume gas exports.
The expert explains that Russia has a surplus production of its own gas and consequently, there is no need to export Turkmen gas to fulfill its export contracts.Simonov thinks that resuming gas supplies would be possible if some political issued needed to be resolved in this way.
The telecommunications provider MTS which announced the forced curtailing of its operations in Turkmenistan on Friday, 29 September, was also not raised.
Besides, a member of the delegation told RBK that Afghanistan’s issue was briefly touched upon but no practical steps were on the agenda.
President Berdymukhammedov was primarily interested in defining the status of the Caspian Sea and signing the Convention on the Caspian Sea status, according to the information. The Convention will be again included in the agenda of the regular summit of the Caspian bordering states, which is scheduled to be held in Kazakhstan.
The undefined status of the Caspian Sea prevents the launch of constructing the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline which might be used to transport the Turkmen gas via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).
The issue of dual Turkmen-Russian nationals who fail to obtain new biometrical Turkmen passports was not discussed in the course of the meeting.