ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, July 25. Turkmenistan is ready to cooperate with partners on the implementation of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement distributed to the media, Trend reports.
The report says that recently, comments have begun to appear in a number of international media regarding the possibilities of implementing a project for the supply of Turkmen natural gas in the western direction. We are talking about the construction of a gas pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea in order to transport Turkmen natural gas to European markets (the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline).
The Foreign Ministry noted that the idea of building the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline was initially considered by Turkmenistan not just as an economically and commercially sound project but also as an important component of the diversification of energy flows as a key condition for global energy security and sustainability based on equal consideration of the interests and benefits of producers, consumers, and transit countries. Which, by the way, all potential project participants agree with.
The beginning of a substantive discussion of this issue was laid during the official visit of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Brussels in November 2007 and his talks with the President of the European Commission, European Commissioners, and heads of various EU structures. In November of the same year and in May 2008, official representatives of the EU responsible for energy cooperation visited Turkmenistan, during which fundamental agreements were reached on cooperation between Turkmenistan and the EU in the field of energy. One of the results of the meetings was also the signing, in May 2008, of a Memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the field of energy between Turkmenistan and the EU. Mutual readiness to develop a mechanism to ensure the supply of Turkmen energy to Europe was confirmed during the official visit of the then President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, to Turkmenistan in early 2011.
On the part of the EU, in turn, significant efforts were also made, in particular in the form of the creation of the Caspian Development Corporation as an association of European energy companies, banks, and other financial institutions to establish systematic cooperation on the withdrawal of Caspian energy resources in the western direction. It is natural that the EU Trans-Caspian gas pipeline was included in the list of promising projects.
In general, cooperation on the construction of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline has progressed consistently and practically, receiving political and functional international support.
The international legal validity of the project is also beyond doubt after the adoption in 2018 by five coastal states of the fundamental document regulating the key principles of policy in the Caspian Sea, the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea.
Article 14 of this document, in particular, states:
The parties can lay cables and pipelines along the bottom of the Caspian Sea.
The determination of the route for laying underwater cables and pipelines is carried out in agreement with the party through the sector of the bottom through which the underwater cable or pipeline should be conducted.
Thus, to date, the construction of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline is directly related to the delimitation of the seabed between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
Furthermore, Turkmenistan is convinced that there are no political, economic, or financial factors preventing the construction of the gas pipeline. On the contrary, the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline is an absolutely realistic project, justified from an economic point of view, capable of making a tangible contribution to ensuring energy security in Eurasia and ensuring long-term and uninterrupted access to raw materials for European consumers.
