Russian, Turkmen leaders seek to settle gas row

TURKMENISTAN: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited energy-rich Turkmenistan on Sunday, easing tensions over a gas dispute that saw the isolated country reach out to the West.

Medvedev and his Turkmen counterpart Gurganbuly Berdymukhamedov clinked champagne glasses for the cameras in the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashi, after a bitter row that crippled Turkmen gas exports in recent months.

Speaking earlier at the finale of an off-road car race, Medvedev stressed Moscow’s wish for good ties with Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic believed to hold the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves.

“Our wish is to advance the good tradition of friendly relations in Central Asia, and these relations are advancing,” Medvedev said at the closing ceremony of the Silk Road rally, a leg of the international Dakar rally series.

Russian-Turkmen ties soured after a gas pipeline explosion in April that led Turkmenistan to reach out to the West for investments in its lucrative energy sector, much to the Kremlin’s displeasure.

Turkmenistan blamed the blast on a decision by Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom to abruptly lower the amount of Turkmen gas it took, but Moscow called it a technical mishap. Ashgabat is believed to have lost substantial revenues because of the row with Russia, which has almost completely halted the export of Turkmen natural gas since April.

But Sunday’s meeting between the two leaders held several signals that the dispute was on its way to being resolved.

Russian television carried images of the two presidents with champagne glasses toasting one another after signing the deal granting Russia’s Itera energy group exploration rights on a block of Turkmenistan’s Caspian shelf reserves.

Turkmenbashi ,Monday, AFP