Gas supplies not on agenda

The Presidents of Ukraine and Turkmenistan have agreed to set up a task force that will form a highest-level intergovernmental commission, reports the Ukrainian President’s press service. The agreement was reached in Ashgabat, following the Ukrainian President Yushchenko’s t te- -t te meeting with his Turkmenian counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and negotiations they presided over.

President Yushchenko proposed working out an action plan for relations between Ukraine and Turkmenistan for the next two years and holding a bilateral business forum. “Both countries possess a unique potential, although it has often failed to be implemented due to a lack of contact and information,” he said. Yushchenko added that as many as 24 Ukrainian companies were operating on Turkmenistan’s market and more than 50 business projects have been completed. “It is important for us to uphold this policy,” Yushchenko said, explaining the forum’s objective.

Yushchenko reaffirmed his invitation to President Berdimuhamedow to visit Ukraine and suggested that the newly established intergovernmental economic cooperation commission meet during his visit in order to give a fresh impetus to the economic relations between Ukraine and Turkmenistan.

The Ukrainian side showed interest in the development of such industries as mechanical engineering, particularly in Ukrainian companies’ expanded participation in Turkmenistan’s infrastructure projects in the fuel-and-energy sphere, aircraft building, space exploration, agriculture, etc.

Ukraine’s effective participation in such projects is evidenced by the completion of the railroad bridge spanning the Amu Darya River — a unique construction project for this region of Central Asia — by the Ukrainian government-run corporation Ukrtransbud.

During the talks, both sides discussed matters relating to regular Kyiv-Ashgabat flights. The Ukrainian side proposed increasing the number of Turkmenian students enrolled in Ukraine’s educational establishments and signaled its readiness to step up academic cooperation, specifically by signing contracts between the national academies of sciences.

Naturally, the abovementioned issues are important for the development of relations between Ukraine and Turkmenistan. What seems unusual is the fact that neither side broached the gas subject. Before Yushchenko’s visit his spokesman Bohdan Sokolovsky, who is tasked with handling matters pertaining to international energy security, told the Ukrainian mass media that Ukraine was standing a good chance of renewing direct gas supplies from Turkmenistan: “I can see bright prospects in terms of a broader and more effective cooperation between Ukraine and Turkmenistan in the gas sphere. Any third party will also benefit from this cooperation.”

Mykhailo HONCHRAR, director of the NOMOS Energy Programs Center, believes that everything was said prior to the Ukrainian President’s visit to Ashgabat. He told The Day:

“The fact that the issue of direct gas supplies was broached long before this visit is additional proof that any political and psychological measures are not likely to result in resuming bilateral relations in terms of direct gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Ukraine. That is why all possible issues were discussed except this one, because everything has already been said.”

Honchar further believes that under certain circumstances, given a possibility of a RosUkrEnergo-2 scenario, the two countries may resume “nearly” direct gas supplies—in actuality gas would come via an intermediary. This may be an option that Russia is trying to talk Berdimuhamedow into.

Honchar emphasized that this objective cannot be reached in one presidential visit and that Kyiv should have started cooperating with Ashgabat long ago and followed the thorny path of trilateral talks in various formats. “One ought to consider whether the Russian side will be inclined to set up, traditionally, a non-transparent scheme. Otherwise, it is hard to see why Russia would show goodwill and agree to let Ukraine receive Turkmenistan’s less expensive gas, while Ukraine is demanding from Gazprom to cut its gas exports to Ukraine. The Russian monopolist doesn’t look like a charitable society,” said the Ukrainian expert.