BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 11. Turkmen-French relations have gained fresh momentum in recent months, with economic cooperation increasingly assuming a prominent place on the bilateral agenda. On September 4–5, a Turkmen delegation held a series of meetings in Paris with representatives of leading French companies and financial institutions, during which prospective projects in energy, infrastructure, technology, and other areas were discussed. The participants included Thales, Thales Alenia Space, Airbus, TotalEnergies, Bouygues, Vinci Construction, as well as Coface, UBAF, Société Générale CIB, Crédit Agricole, and Rothschild & Co.
Following these engagements, on September 9, the President of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, received France’s newly appointed Ambassador, Alena Grand. During the meeting, the sides reaffirmed their interest in further developing trade, economic, and energy cooperation, as well as expanding engagement between the private sectors of the two countries. Berdimuhamedov particularly emphasized the potential for cooperation in the energy and transport-logistics sectors.
The sequence of these engagements indicates an effort to further broaden France’s existing presence in Turkmenistan, extending cooperation to new industries, technologies, and instruments of economic engagement.
The foundation for the current expansion of cooperation was laid during the visit of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (Parliament) of Turkmenistan, to France in May 2025. During that visit, the economic dimension of bilateral relations was notably broadened, with the Turkmen-French Economic Forum addressing not only the traditional areas of construction and energy, where French companies have maintained a presence in Turkmenistan, but also satellite technology, transport, water resources, land cadastre, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as green and hydrogen energy.
An important outcome of that visit was the emergence of concrete projects beyond the construction sector, which has traditionally anchored bilateral cooperation. Turkmenistan reached agreements with French companies in satellite technology, land resource management, water management and methane emissions monitoring. Agreements with Airbus Defence and Space, IGN FI, SUEZ, Thales Alenia Space and Kayrros in particular demonstrated that the two sides now view French technology not merely as a tool for building individual facilities, but as a resource for modernizing various sectors of the economy.
The fact that the areas identified in 2025 are now gaining more visible momentum can be explained not only by the natural progression of bilateral dialogue. Turkmenistan has entered a new investment cycle, triggered by the start of the fourth phase of development at the Galkynysh gas field. As Trend previously noted in its article "Inside Turkmenistan’s investment cycle: How Turkish contractors anchor a new phase of economic expansion," the scale of this project is capable of generating multi-year demand not only in the gas sector, but also in construction, energy, transport, industry and related fields.
In April 2026, Turkmenistan and CNPC signed an agreement on the construction of facilities for the fourth stage of Galkynysh, which envisages creating capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year at a project cost of around $5.1 billion. For foreign companies, what matters most is the subsequent multiplier effect of such investment: a major energy project creates new opportunities for contractors, equipment suppliers, engineering firms and technology partners.
Against this backdrop, the economic agenda set out by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov during his 2025 visit to France appears to be finding a more favorable environment for practical implementation roughly a year later. French companies are already established in sectors set to see additional demand within the new investment cycle, and the expansion of cooperation in technology, infrastructure, energy and resource management positions them to compete not only for individual projects, but for a role in the broader chain of new investment now taking shape.
