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Turkmenistan
CIS Relations
Turkmenistan has been hesitant to sign economic agreements within
the CIS framework. Niyazov has criticized the weakness of CIS
mechanisms and proposed a new CIS structure that would be exclusively
consultative in nature. As an example of its approach, Turkmenistan
declined to attend the Surgut Conference with Russia and Kazakstan
(1994), whose goal was to stabilize falling gas and oil output,
stating that the domestic gas industry was sufficiently stable
without CIS investment funds. At that time, Russian Federation
deputy prime minister Aleksandr Shokhin declared that Turkmenistan
must decide whether it is with the CIS countries or not. Despite
such friction, Turkmenistan has maintained close bilateral economic
and military ties with Russia.
Regional cooperation among Central Asian republics has not been
as profound as anticipated upon the dissolution of the Soviet
Union. In 1993 the other four Central Asian republics accounted
for about one-fifth of Turkmenistan's imports and exports. Turkmenistan
has followed its own path in all areas of post-Soviet reform,
preferring bilateral to regional agreements in the economic sphere;
for example, it has agreed to supply Kazakstan with electricity
in return for grain. The decisions of all five republics to switch
to Latin-based alphabets will not necessarily have the expected
result of improving cultural ties because the romanization of
distinct sounds in the respective languages will be far from uniform.
Fragmentation is evident also in the introduction by all five
nations of separate national currencies.
Data as of March 1996
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