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At a February 26th meeting between the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, Amirkhan Muttaki and Rashid Meredov, Turkmenistan agreed to increase the amount of electricity it supplies to Afghanistan's Herat province. This electricity will be supplied via the Nur al-Jihad power substation, which Turkmenistan had previously upgraded. Last month Turkmenistan and the Afghan electricity company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) concluded an agreement for Turkmenistan to supply Afghanistan with 1.8 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity. The contract was agreed by DABS CEO Muhammad Hanif Hamza during his January visit to Turkmenistan, where he held meetings with the management of the energy corporation Turkmenenergo and with the country’s minister of energy, Annageldi Saparov. The cost of Turkmenistan’s electricity supply to Afghanistan has not been revealed, but a representative of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry told the news portal Tolo News that it is "inexpensive". Turkmenistan supplies a significant portion of Afghanistan’s electricity, but the two nations' connection run deeper than just the energy sector, with 1.2 million ethnic Turkmen living in Afghanistan.
On 26th February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov and an Afghan delegation led by acting Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi met in Ashgabat to discuss large-scale energy and transport projects. The negotiations focused on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) high-voltage power transmission line, and the construction of railways from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan. The Turkmen Foreign Ministry cited ‘a high degree of readiness’ on both sides to continue the construction of these facilities in Afghanistan. TAPI is a major project to transfer Turkmenistan’s natural gas to Pakistan and India through Afghanistan. The construction of the pipeline in Afghanistan, long delayed by financial and security issues, will stretch for 1,840 km and transport more than 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Turkmenistan's giant Galkynysh gas field. Once completed, the TAPI pipeline will provide Turkmenistan with an additional gas export route, while Afghanistan will receive both its own volume of gas and some $400 million a year in revenue from transit charges. The two foreign ministers also agreed to explore the potential of training specialists in various sectors of the Afghan economy within Turkmen higher and secondary vocational educational institutions. According to Afghan statistics, trade between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan reached $481 million in 2023.
On February 25th a group of businessmen from Afghanistan arrived in Turkmenistan to discuss investment opportunities in Afghanistan, and to shore up the two countries' commercial and diplomatic connections. Led by the acting Afghan foreign minister Amirkhan Muttaki. the group included members of the Afghanistan Railways Authority, the acting minister of mines and petroleum, and representatives of the national energy company. This visit was not publicized by Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry did however report on a February 23rd meeting between the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan, Ahmad Gurbanov, and the special representative of the Chinese foreign ministry for Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyun, in Ashgabat.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) convened for its 87th session in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 29th, and Turkmen delegates once again made the journey to take part. Myakhri Byashimova, Turkmenistan's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, headed the delegation. The gathering covered the country's 6th intermittent report on its fulfillment of the Convention on the Elimination of All Types of Discrimination Against Women, according to the press office of Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Turkmen delegation provided data on improvements that took place between 2018 and 2023 in the spheres of legislative issues, economy, regulation, and society and culture. The CEDAW’s current working session will run until February 16th. The United Nations General Assembly ratified the international convention known as CEDAW in 1979, requiring member nations to fight all forms of discrimination against women. CEDAW comprises one of the eight principal United Nations human rights conventions. Its mission is to underline that women's rights are tantamount to human rights overall.
On February 5th, 57 tank railcars with 2,000 tons of liquefied gas arrived in Kyrgyzstan as humanitarian aid from Turkmenistan, to help Bishkek recover after an explosion at its thermal power plant on February 2nd. Three workers at the power plant were seriously injured in the explosion, which left parts of the city without hot water and heating. After the accident, neighboring Kazakhstan increased the supply of electricity from its Zhambyl power plant to Kyrgyzstan, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said on February 3rd. Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Energy says that engineers from Russia have arrived in Bishkek to help Kyrgyz colleagues with the repair and reconstruction of the power plant. After the accident, Kyrgyzstan president Sadyr Japarov made an order to fully modernize the plant.
On January 27th Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council) of Turkmenistan, met with the managing director of the German consulting company Goetzpartners Emerging Markets GmbH, Vladimir Mathias. Goetzpartners won an international tender to consult on the creation of a medical cluster in the Turkmen city of Arkadag, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry has reported. Germany is one of Turkmenistan’s key European partners. Several German companies are involved in large-scale projects in the fields of transport, communications and logistics in the country. At the meeting Mr Mathias explained to Mr Berdimuhamedov that the planned medical cluster in Arkadag is designed to produce various types of medical products not only for the domestic market, but also for export. The city of Arkadag was unveiled on June 29th, 2023. The “smart” city, designed to be home for 70,000 people and costing billions of dollars to construct, is located 30km south of the capital, Ashgabat.
