InternationalWashington briefing: Turkmenistan ratchets up rhetoric in Caspian dispute with Azerbaijan
Published: Friday September 04, 2009
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan. turkmenistan.gov.tm
Related Articles
Azerbaijan, Turkey seek Turkmenistan gas, ferry link up
Hopes revive for U.S.-backed Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan gas link
Washington - Turkmenistan will build up its naval forces in the Caspian, its President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov declared on August 31, RFE/RL and other media reported. The buildup would include a new naval base and the purchase of missile-armed vessels.
The two countries have failed to agree on their maritime affairs after years of intermittent talks. The recent pronouncements come following several high-level summits between Azerbaijani and Turkmenistani leaders that seemed to indicate a warming in relations.
But in a surprise development last month, Turkmenistan said it would launch a legal case against Azerbaijan in an international court over several disputed offshore oilfields.
The disputed area includes the Azeri and Chirag oilfields that have accounted for the bulk of Azerbaijan's oil production in the last decade, which has already brought it billions of dollars in revenue.
The reignited Azerbaijani-Turkmenistani disagreements may also have been the reason for a recently aborted NATO deployment into Afghanistan.
The Russian-language service of Deutsche Welle reported on August 26 that a German air force AWACS plane was forced to abort its Afghanistan deployment after three weeks of waiting at a Turkish airbase because of a lack of overflight permission from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
The United States and its European allies have used the Caucasus-Central Asia corridor to resupply their forces in Afghanistan. The route supplements the main supply lines through Pakistan and the recently agreed route via Russia and Central Asia.
