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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Turkmenistan
Index
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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