I have repeatedly accused the Bush administration of having written off Turkmenistan, and Central Asia as a whole: either through useless and empty finger wagging or an active disinterest. Indeed, since Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s inauguration as Turkmenbashi’s successor in January, not a single U.S. high official has deemed it worth his or her time to visit Ashgabat… while the Presidents and/or Prime/Defense/Economic Ministers of Russia, Turkey, Iran, and China have. It has been a very visible snub, considering what Turkmenistan has to offer in terms of not just energy but strategic gains in all of Central Asia.
Well, according to Richard Weitz, it appears the long winter, and spring, and summer, and the first part of fall of my discontent may finally be over:
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to meet with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov when the latter travels to the United States in late September to attend the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting would confirm Turkmenistan’s emergence as a major arena of competition between the United States and Russia.
Well, at least we’ll get a SecState out of this, right? I mean, she waited until he came here to talk to him, but it’s something?
The United States has intensively courted gas-rich Turkmenistan since Berdymukhamedov succeeded former dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, who died suddenly in December 2006. According to Evan A. Feigenbaum, the deputy US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, 18 US government delegations – 15 from the executive branch and three from the Congress – have traveled to Turkmenistan over the past nine months, probing for ways to strengthen bilateral relations. “Turkmenistan is a small country that stirs large interest,” said Feigenbaum, who examined the current state of US-Turkmen relations during a September 17 presentation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.
Right, so all along we’ve sent low level functionaries (with the exception of a June 21 visit by Admiral William Fallon, who not only expressed his desire to deepen ties but is now slated to take over CENTOM… and curiously echoed one of the central conceits of Dana Priest’s seminal work), but the problem is we’ve been doing that while everyone else has been sending their top officials. This is the first time Berdimuhamedov will have met with a Cabinet official.
I hold a tremendous respect for Mr. Weitz and his work, but this essay of his is little more than uncritically quoting Evan A. Feigenbaum, the deputy US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs—the one appointee that has demonstrated any interest in the place, and that is because it is in his job title. There are plenty of scholars and locals who have noted the official snub Washington has levied repeatedly at Ashgabat; while that very well might be defensible, to pretend it’s been this glorious and productive collabortion, as Feigenbaum does (and this is most likely nothing more than the verbal somersaults required by his position), and to simply repeat his talking points with no question or challenge… well, that starts to cross the line into propaganda.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1771 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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Thanks Joshua for your contribution to the dialogue on this issue.
You are correct to point out that, while the level of US-Turkmenistan engagement has increased substantially compared to pre-Dec 2006 levels, US efforts remain far below those of other important countries.
Richard
Also, here are the final two paragraphs of my submission which did not make it into the version Eurasia.net published:
“Nevertheless, the administration might be wise to accelerate its efforts to appoint a new ambassador to the country, thereby providing more sustained support for its diplomatic engagement efforts. The current episodic visits from Washington-based agencies can complement, but not substitute, for a more substantial in-country American diplomatic presence.
Although U.S. officials might publicly minimize the extent to which foreign countries are engaged in a contest for influence in Ashkhabad, the governments of China, Russia, and Europe have been engaged in a full-court press since December 21 to direct Turkmenistan’s foreign policies and energy resources in favorable directions.”
Mr. Weitz –
Thanks for posting that! See, that would match up with what I understand of your work
I’ve had editors change things to say something I didn’t really mean to say, too, and it can be really frustrating.