Diplomat: Turkmenistan considers Armenia as an important partner in  South Caucasus and a kind of a bridge between Asia and Europe  

ArmInfo.Turkmenistan considers Armenia as an important partner in the South Caucasus and a kind of a bridge between Asia and Europe, Serdar Durdyev, Head of the Europe Division at the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, has told ArmInfo.     

Serdar Durdyev says that the Armenian-Turkmen relations are at a very  high level. Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov's visit to  Armenia and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's visit to Turkmenistan  gave a strong impetus to the Armenian-Turkmen relations. "Our ties  have been dynamically developing over the past few years.  We are  cooperating both in the bilateral format and within international  organizations, particularly, within the UN, OSCE, and CIS. We are  conducting an efficient dialogue and the contacts between our  countries' foreign ministries have recently been intensified. As  regards the bilateral trade and economic relations, I can point out  the good dynamics, though the volume is not so big yet. The key  strategic directions of cooperation are power engineering and  transport.  Turkmenistan considers Armenia as an important partner in  the South Caucasus and a kind of a bridge between Asia and Europe,"  the diplomat says, noting that Armenia supports Turkmenistan's policy  in the transport sector and that Armenia participated in the first  global transport forum that took place in Ashgabat last year. He  points out that these two strategic directions are on the cooperation  agenda, and also stresses the progress in cooperation in such sectors  as industry, science, culture and education. 

Speaking of cooperation in power engineering, Durdyev says that there  are various schemes of cooperation.  "The relevant potential exists.  Turkmenistan is one of the cooperation directions in the oil and gas  sector.  So, the meetings with your President always raise this  issue. There are no specific projects yet, but there are ideas and  prospects for the Turkmen gas supplies in the western direction. Now  it might be early to speak of specific projects, but various schemes  are being considered. Armenia is a serious partner in redirecting the  Turkmen energy resources to the West, including via the Caucasus.  Therefore, I think there are interesting plans and projects and it  will be possible to implement them under favorable conditions," he  says. 

When asked whether Turkmenistan has considered the EEU membership  possibility, Durdyev replies that the country does not consider this  issue, because it is committed to the internationally recognized  neutrality.  "Nevertheless, we respect the activities of that  structure and we tend to consider possible options of joint  activities in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, for instance. We  are no members of that organization, but we are invited to  participate in the SCO activities as an honorary guest. Similar  options can be considered here as well," he says. 

To note, Armenia is conducting negotiations to find options for gas  supply to the republic. Earlier, Armenian Deputy Minister of Energy  Infrastructures and Natural Resources Hayk Harutyunyan, who headed  the Armenian delegation at the talks in Ashgabat regarding possible  gas trade, told ArmInfo that the matter concerns the best possible  ways of supplies of Turkmen gas to Armenia. It was previously  reported that Ashgabat offered Tehran to increase the current gas  swap amount for Armenia and Azerbaijan to 15 mln cu m per day. But  Harutyunyan noted that in the case of Armenia the matter concerns  smaller amounts.  The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline capacity is 6 mln cu  m per day and it is simply impossible to ensure big swap amounts. On  Jan 13, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said that the  Government of Armenia is working at various gas swap schemes. He  added that the swap transactions were discussed with the Iranian and  Turkmen ambassadors on the first day of 2017. 

To recall, the natural gas supply to Armenia from Russia through the  territory of Georgia is constantly discussed in the context of  development of Moscow-Tbilisi relations. However, today it has no  alternative, because the current second gas pipeline from Iran is  unable to ensure the necessary amount. According to ArmInfo analysts,  it is quite possible that Armenia seeks to establish swap supplies of  Turkmen gas via Iran. The matter concerns supply of Turkmen gas to  Iran, which will supply similar volumes to Armenia.