Concerned with increasingly aggressive Russian foreign policy toward former Soviet states and the need to defeat the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, Turkmenistan is reaching out for alternative solutions to improve security. In March 2015, Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, said Turkmenistan had inquired about enhanced security cooperation with Western partners.
The move comes as Turkmenistan is also trying to improve energy security. The European Union (EU), seeking to diversify energy supplies in the face of geopolitical energy instability, is working to build the Southern Gas Corridor, which would bypass Russia and bring Turkmen gas directly to European markets.
With about 10 percent of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, Turkmenistan has worked diligently over the past decade to break its own dependence on Russian pipelines and reduce its exposure to the use of gas as a geopolitical weapon. Russia’s Gazprom recently announced it would unilaterally reduce gas purchases from Turkmenistan, motivating Ashgabat to reprioritize ties with Western partners.
Turkmenistan’s developing military cooperation with the U.S. and energy cooperation with the EU is viewed as a way for the country to develop a more independent foreign policy free of Soviet era entanglements.
Source: The Centre for Eastern Studies (Poland)