Karimov clarifies Ashgabat's positions

For gas

Yesterday, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov arrived in Ashgabat on a two-day visit. The significance of this visit is difficult to overestimate - the last time Karimov visited Ashgabat was seven years ago, in September 2000 , when he met with the Turkmen leader, the late Turkmenbashi. Two years later, relations between Tashkent and Ashgabat deteriorated catastrophically. Turkmenbashi accused the Uzbek leadership of helping the Turkmen opposition in preparation for the so-called assassination attempt on Turkmenbashi in November 2002. Two years later, Karimov and Niyazov made an attempt at reconciliation by meeting on Uzbek territory in Bukhara. However, this rendezvous did not bring much warmth to Turkmen-Uzbek relations. The almost 2,000-kilometer border separating the diasporas of the two peoples, which have long-term family roots, remained a zone of strict control by border guards who prevented historical cross-border trade exchanges.

The trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan is a meager amount: in 2006 - only 41.4 million dollars, and in the nine months of 2007 - 47.8 million dollars. The Turkmen officialdom commented dryly and exclusively in a businesslike manner yesterday on the beginning visit of the Uzbek leader , during which a package of bilateral documents will be signed. “In their approaches to the development of bilateral relations, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan profess the rational use of existing and future economic opportunities and mutually beneficial contacts,” says the Turkmen State Information Service.

The Uzbek officialdom is a little more specific: “The leaders of the two countries will discuss regional gas pipeline projects in Ashgabat.” We are talking about a gas pipeline that should go from Turkmenistan to China, as well as the Caspian gas pipeline , which should go from Turkmenistan to Russia along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Uzbekistan takes part in both projects not only as a transit country, but also, possibly, as a gas exporter. As a representative of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry noted to the Kazakhstan Today agency, “Tashkent would like to clarify Ashgabat’s position on the Caspian gas pipeline.”

The implementation of this project was declared a priority task for Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan at the tripartite summit of the presidents of these countries in the city of Turkmenbashi in May. At the same time, it was announced that Uzbekistan was joining these plans. At the meeting, the instructions given by the presidents to their governments to prepare a package of documents on the construction of the Caspian gas pipeline by September 1 were announced. However, the order has not yet been fulfilled. According to Vremya Novostei sources close to the negotiations, the parties cannot agree on the main thing - gas pumping tariffs.

In addition, in recent months, the chances of implementing the competing Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project, lobbied by the United States and the European Union, have sharply increased. According to the Trans-Caspian, through which Turkmen and, possibly, Kazakh gas can be sent bypassing Russian territory through Azerbaijan to Turkey, where it will become an integral part of the Nabucco gas pipeline going to Europe. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov is preparing these days for a visit to Brussels scheduled for November 5-6. There he will have to discuss agreements on the construction of the Trans-Caspian Sea, and it seems that until this moment Ashgabat is avoiding agreements with Moscow on the Caspian Sea.

Islam Karimov in Ashgabat is obviously hoping to get first-hand information about the state of negotiations ongoing with Moscow, Brussels and Washington. It is curious that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, returning from Tehran, where he took part in the Caspian Summit, made a stop in Tashkent the day before yesterday to meet with Islam Karimov on the eve of his trip to Ashgabat. Central Asian leaders are consolidating.

Arkady DUBNOV